Dean's Hidden Hero
by Reigns'Sweetheart
Summary: Leah Lopez is the new girl in school, when she meets Dean Ambrose. They begin a friendship and realize little by little, how similar their scars are from their rocky lives. As they grow closer, will trouble threaten them or will they prevail and allow Dean to see how much of a hero she has been to him?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first story with Dean as one of the main characters. I hope everyone likes this story :) **

I walked through the halls of my new high school as I went to the office to make sure my papers were all in order in time for my first day at my new school. Coming from New York, it's been taking a while for me to used to being in Cincinati, Ohio but I was trying. Apparently I was trying hard enough by the difficulty I had in making new friends. It's been a month and I still haven't made any progress, it seems.

"Ms. Lopez, glad to see you again today." Said Principal Ross with a warm smile on her face. She was a tall woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was fit and had fair skin. "Please have a seat."

I took a seat and crossed my legs as I put my bag on the seat next to me. "My mother couldn't make it today...again. I apologize for that."

"It's fine." Said Principal Ross. "The important thing is that _you're _here, besides she doesn't have to sign anything today so it's alright. After checking everything, you seem to be good to go." She said as she looked at a few papers. "Let me just give you your official schedule and your locker number. You can use any lock that you want, but if it's a combination locker, keep the combination to yourself. There's a few students around here who like to start trouble."

"I understand." I told her with a smile. "When will I get my books?"

"Books are given on the first day that your classes meet." Ross responded. "The teachers will give you the books that are needed for that class but some may not give you the books until later that week. It depends on if you need a book for the class or not. Seating arrangements depend on the teacher. Some do alphabetical order while others let you sit where ever you please. Here's the map to the school, it may help you find your way around a bit. The first day of school is next week Monday which is just three days away. Make sure you're ready."

After a few more minutes, I put my schedule away as I looked for my locker. After turning a corner, I heard a few lockers slam shut as I hid back around the corner to see what aws going on. I looked to see a guy walking around with a white wife beater, jeans and sneakers. His dirty blonde hair was messy and his eyes seemed like a beautiful blue, though I couldn't see them too well from a distance.

I made my way back around the corner and continued to look for my locker. I saw him freeze in his steps when he saw me, though he said nothing to me as I walked past. I found my locker a few feet behind him and felt his stare on me, still. Getting a good look at him as I passed by, I had to admit, he was pretty good looking. Those blue eyes of his just captivated me and the bad boy vibe that I got from him just made him look so much more attractive.

I wondered what his name was and if we would have any classes together. Looking back, I saw him still holding a gaze on me and I held it for a few seconds before looking away again. After closing my locker, I turned around and saw him walking towards me. I hooked my brown hair behind my ears as I watched him.

"What's your name?" He asked in a gritty voice. "I don't think I've seen you around here before."

"My name's Leah." I told him. "And I'm new, I just moved here a month ago from New York."

The guy stook out his hand and I shook it firmly. "My name's Dean. What are you doing on this side of Cincinatti?"

I blinked a few times and looked down at the floor. "My mom remarried and his job relocated him to here."

Grabbing my bag off the floor, I suddenly realized how big and heavy it was and hoped that he would notice much. "I'll see you around. It was nice meeting you, Dean."

I walked away and left him standing by my locker as he watched me walk away. At least I was making some progress in the social department.

_**0.0 **_

I couldn't get my mind off of that girl. Her blue/grey eyes were beautiful and for the first time in a long time, I actually remembered a girl's name. As horrible as that sounds, it's true. I haven't had the best luck with women and with the way my life is going, sometimes I think that I'd be better off without a relationship.

My father is a deadbeat dad who left when I was little. My sister hasn't been around much since she was sixteen and so it's just me and my mother. Living in the projects hasn't been the easiest thing, but as long as I have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in at night, I'll try to figure everything else out.

Mom isn't ever around. She spends countless hours out of the house and doesn't come back until the early morning hours. We barely see each other. When it's time for me to go to school, she's still sleeping off her drunken state as well as her high from drugs. Random guys walk in and out of this apartment, leaving me in wonder as to how no one hasn't stolen anything yet from this place.

I walked into my English class and sat in the back after greeting the teacher, Mr. Stapp. He's the one teacher who's helped me out since my freshman year and I don't know where I'd be without his help.

Seeing familiar faces walk into the room for the first day of classes, one stood out to me. Her long brown hair and blue/grey eyes made their way across the room as she walked up to the teacher and talked to him. After exchanging a few words, she looked around and began walking to the back of the room. Everyone there stared at her as she walked, and those familiar looks of desire in the guys' eyes were noticeable, but she paid no mind to it.

It was Leah. She had on a brown shirt with dark blue jeans that hugged her legs perfectly and sneakers. Her hair was pulled back into a neat pony tail and she had her bookbag hanging form her shoulder. Genuinely smiling at me, she walked up to the seat beside me.

"Is this seat taken?" Leah asked.

"No, you can sit there." I responded. Taking her bag off, she sat down and leaned back against the chair.

A few of the students whispered and I glared at them. As always, it was the popular kids doing all of the talking.

"You may wanna watch who you sit next to, new girl." Said one of the blonde cheerleaders who just happened to be captain of the varsity cheerleading team. "Mr. Ambrose here is bad influence.

Leah looked at them and said nothing. "It's a free country, Emily. She can do whatever she wants. If it involves sitting next to me, then so be it."

"You gonna take her home to your mother, so that she can learn how to get paid for sleeping around?" Asked one of the football players sitting next to them. "I heard she was in my neighborhood last night and that she was pretty amazing. How do you feel about that?"

"Pretty good, cause I heard that your mom was one of the customers." I replied with a smirk on my face when his smile dropped.

They all turned around when Mr. Stapps began to speak. "Welcome to English Literature, everyone. My name is Mr. Stapp for those who don't know me."

Leah passed me a piece of paper that was folded and kept her eyes to the front of the room. I opened it to see what was inside.

_'Nice response. I like you already.' _

She looked over at me when I looked at her. Leah's smile was genuine and there was something about her that captivated my attention. It could have been her eyes, or the fact that she didn't say anything bad about me. Maybe it was that attitude that she had, as if she held herself with such confidence and it was such a damn turn on.

_'How do I know you're not thinking the same thing they are?' _

_'There's the fact that we don't know anything about each other. It may surprise you...we may be more alike than you think, Dean. Whether I know you or not, it's not my job to judge anyone.'_

I looked at what she had just written and knew that this girl was different. I've been through enough in my life to know what kind of person you were, even if it was just a close guess. I was always right.

_'Struggles?' _

_'More than anyone knows. Like I'd bother telling anyone here. They wouldn't understand a thing. They're more priviliged than I ever was. I'm okay with them not knowing.' _ Leah wrote back._ 'You?' _

_'What hero doesn't have a trajedy?' _

_'Lol, what would be your hero name?' _She asked.

I thought for a moment before writing back. _'I don't know. But maybe you can help out.'_

**...**

After class was over I caught up to Leah who was quickly walking to her locker. Luckily mines was nearby, so I acted as if I was just going to my locker.

"What's your next class?" I asked her as she looked through her bag that she already had in her locker. Looking at her schedule, she put her bag down and I saw a glimpse of what looked like clothes. A lot of them. Maybe we really _are _more alike than what I thought we were as I looked into my locker and saw a bag of my own filled with clothes.

"Gym." Leah responded. "Not all of my gym credits transferred over, but luckily I only need this credit to complete the gym requirements."

I looked at my schedule and smiled. "Luckily, you won't be alone. You'll have me."

She smiled and folded her paper. Zipping her bag back up, she stuffed it in her locker. I tried to forget about the amount of clothes that she had in her bag, but couldn't help but wonder what else she had in there and why.

As we walked through the hallway to gym, people made an effort to give Leah some attention as she walked by. I would too as we walked side by side. Leah was an extremely attractive girl and if it was some other girl, I would try to take her home and get off, but she wasn't that type of girl. Hell, she looked like she could curse you out for even looking at her the wrong way. When we got to gym, we sat on the bleachers and looked around at the sea of students that walked in.

"Maybe we can hang out sometime." I suggested to Leah. "We can get to know each other a little better."

She gave a small smile and looked down at her hands. "Where do you want to meet?"

"I was thinking that I could pick you up." I told her, offering.

Leah's face became serious, and I wasn't able to tell what she was thinking. "I don't know."

I looked at her and knew that she was hiding something from me but I didn't want to press her for anything. We barely know each other and as much of an asshole as I can be, I just didn't have the balls to be like that towards her. I turned my attention to some of my friends who were also considered outcasts and made some jokes with them, eventually getting in trouble for talking.

We all snickered and I saw Leah wtih the corner of my eye just staring down at the gym teachers. She became really quiet and wasn't making much of an effort to talk to anyone at the moment. I grunted and ignored her for a while until class was over, in which she left before I could even get to her. Walking out of the gym, I couldn't see her anywhere and lost her in the crowd, not knowing which way she could have went.

I sighed and shook my head. Maybe I'd see her by her locker at some point throughout the day if we didn't have any more classes together. Her blue eyes burned in my mind, making sure that it was never forgotten.

The mysterious Leah as I like to call her in my mind. Maybe that could be her hero name.

**A/N: Are Leah and Dean more alike than what meets the eye? What has gone on in their lives that may have bought them together? And as for Dean actually being nice to someone that he just met? **

**DISCLAIMER: The names of the places as well as the locations used may not be real. The names and locatons are used for story purposes only! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to Alexandria M and corbettluv for reviewing :) **

"Roman, she's gorgeous." I told my friend as he got lunch with me today. He's currently on the school's football team and one of the star athletes. Hell, he was considered by some as _THE _star athlete. "Long hair, blue eyes, and a smile that makes her look cute when she does."

Some would look at us and wonder how the hell two people on completely different levels of the social ladder ended up being best friends, but we didn't care. We were brothers and he knew me better than a lot of people here.

"I want to see this girl that you keep talking about." Said Roman. "You never talk about anybody like this and it's only the second week of school. I mean, I've heard of a new girl, but I haven't noticed her I don't think."

Looking around, I saw Leah walking to her locker with two bags. One was her bookbag and another was the bag that I had seen in her locker with glimpses here and there of clothes. She had on ripped jeans and sneakers that were beginning to look beat up as she opened up her locker as well as looking tired.

Roman just cleared his throat when he noticed what had my attention and he left my side to go up to her. "Ro, wait!"

"Hey, my name is Roman." He told her as he walked up to her. "You must be Leah."

She just looked up at him and smiled. "Hey, nice to meet you. How do you know my name?"

"It doesn't take long before everyone at school knows of someone new." He replied. "Dean is right though."

"About what?" She asked as she looked at me.

Before Roman could reply, I interrupted. "Nothing! Just that you're smart. Leah's taking AP Physics this semester. She's also taken AP Chemistry, AP Trigonometry, and AP Calculus at her old school."

Leah looked at me and arched an eyebrow. "If you and Dean are friends, then maybe I'll see you around. It was nice meeting you, but I have to get to class."

She grabbed her books and closed her locker before giving us both a smile and walking away. Roman gave me a smirk.

"Leah really does look good." He told me. "You really are right about that."

_**0.0**_

I heard footsteps coming from behind me, but I ignored them. By the sound of them, I knew that it was Dean so I kept walking. He's been ignoring me for the last two weeks and I didn't know why. I guess that the thoughts running through my mind must have slowed me down because I felt an arm grab me a bit roughly. I snapped back at him, almost hitting him in the face when I swung. Dean ducked just in time for me to miss.

"Damn, you're fiesty today." He said as he straightened himself up.

Rolling my eyes, I turned around and began to walk again and heard Dean trying to catch up with me again.

"What's wrong with you, Leah?" He asked. "Two weeks ago, you were fine and now you want nothing to do with me."

"Two weeks ago, you weren't ignoring me." I replied.

His eyes widened. "So that's what this is about?" Dean scoffed and and laughed as he looked around at the empty hallway. "What is it with you girls? A guy ignores you and you get upset over it? You didn't want to hang out with me when I asked, just in case you wanted to know."

It stung a bit when he thought that him ignored me upset me as much as he thought it did, but I didn't show it. "I never said 'no', Dean. I said that I didn't know about you coming to pick me up. I don't exactly have the most perfect living conditions right now."

"What's so bad about your living conditions, Leah that you can't tell me anything?" He asked.

"Don't worry about it." I replied. "Let me meet you somewhere."

Dean made a face. "No, not until you tell me."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" I asked him softly.

He shook his head. "Nope. Not until you tell me."

"Damn it, Dean!" I exclaimed as I sighed heavily and looked around as I leaned my head back. I looked at him again to see Dean walking towards me slowly. "I'm homeless, Dean. It wasn't even two weeks after being here that I was already homeless!"

"I thought you lived with your mom." He said.

I just looked at him. "I did. But her husband tried to have sex with me one day while she wasn't home. I tried to tell her and she wouldn't believe me. When he tried it again, I threatened to go to the police so he kicked me out. He would rather have me out of the house than have his reputation ruined. My mother just stood there watching me pack my things, pleading for her to believe me, but she wouldn't. I walked out of that door the very next day with my bag which is the same bag you see in my locker and when I stopped to look back, Mom was just standing there watching me leave. Not once did she come out and stop me from leaving, she was staring right at me and she didn't stop me."

Leaning up against a wall, I looked down at the floor before looking back up at him. "I walked away with my head held high and and not once did she come after me or call out my name to stop me from leaving. She stayed by his side and defended him no matter how many times I told her about what had happened. I've been homeless ever since. But the thing is, Dean...I've been in and out of shelters since I was five, so being homeless is nothing new to me. That's why I was hesitant to have you pick me up but not once did I ever tell you that I wouldn't hang out with you. I would have gladly said yes but now you know why I didn't."

"Where do you sleep?" He asked quietly.

"At the park, but I'm close to finding a way to sneak back into the school for when it starts getting cold." I replied. "I'm not going back to a shelter, I wanna make it on my own and I'm not running back to my mother. I'm not going to beg anyone for anything, I never have and I won't start now. Call it pride, call it what you will. I'll be just fine either way. I don't want people to feel sorry for me, Dean and I don't want anyone's pity. I'll be okay. By the way, if you want to ignore me, fine. Go ahead and do it. Just have a damn good excuse for it instead of some petty bullshit."

His blue eyes pleaded for me to stick around a little longer, but I couldn't. Turning around, I looked at the time and saw that class was almost over. I groaned and walked back to my locker to put my books away. There was no sense in going to class when there was only ten minutes left. When I looked back, Dean was already gone. There was a part of me that hadn't wished that he left but I understood why. A lot of people would think that I came with a lot of baggage and some wouldn't want to deal with that.

All I could think about at the moment was Dean's blue eyes and his dirty blonde hair. He looked so adorable with those dimples of his and how he wore his hair sometimes. I shook my head to erase the thoughts from my mind and went on with my day.

When my last class was done for the day, I grabbed my bag from my locker and everything else that I needed and made my way out the door. It was a forty-five minute walk to and from school if I was to go from the park. I decided to go the library instead and do some studying. Getting an education seemed to be the only thing that could help me get out of the situation that I was in. With no other way of being able to pay for college, I was going to make sure that I got a scholarship which is why I always took so many AP courses and made sure that I always made straight 'As' and got a good score on my PSATs and SATs.

On my way to the library, I smiled at the familiar looking building. It was a one story building made of crimson bricks. It kept a great upkeep, both inside and out. It was a safe haven for me and I would spend hours upon hours there, never wanting to leave. But then I saw a familiar figure standing by the door. He had on a black leather jacket, jeans and sneakers with a bag on his shoulder. I assumed at first that it was a bookbag because of how far away from him that I was.

"Dean?" I asked in surprise as I saw the blue eyed, dirty blonde guy. I was surprised to him anywhere near a library. I'm surprised that he even knows how to get here at all as he gave me that smile of his.

"That Vanessa girl that you're always with told me that you'd be here." He replied. "So I figured that I'd meet you here."

Looking into his eyes, I could tell that he was genuine with what he was saying. He wasn't being an asshole at the moment and I enjoyed that side of him. He followed me inside, even though I didn't say anything to him. We sat at my usual table that was in a private and quiet corner of the library and got comfortable.

"What's in the bag?" I asked Dean while I took out my books and placed them on the table.

I heard him opening the zipper to his bag and placing it on the table, allowing me to see what was inside. Seeing some clothes in it, I looked up at him.

"You're not the only one who's not living at home." He replied. "I left last night and I slept a few blocks away from the park. An alley if you want to be specific, so we're kinda in the same boat here when it comes to housing."

"What happened?" I asked quietly as I sat down.

He put his bag in the seat next to him and fixed his hair, which really meant him messing up his hair a little more.

"My mom was having one of her drug parties as she likes to call them." Dean replied. "She got mad at me because I asked her if they could be quiet so that I could sleep and she hit me, so I left. It's not the first time and it won't be the last."

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

Dean shook his head. "Don't be. I'm the one that should be sorry. I didn't realize that there may have been something going and I should have, instead of being an idiot about it like I was. I just assumed that maybe you were just trying to reject me in the nicest way possible and that you didn't care enough to want anything to do with me outside of school, so I ignored you...without completely ignoring you."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"When Roman said that I was right earlier today when you two met..." He started off. "...He meant that I was right about how look. Anybody sees you in school and your grades and they know that you're smart as hell with a quick glance. But they don't realize how gorgeous you are until they meet you personally and see you up close. Just because I didn't talk to you, doesn't mean that I didn't notice you."

I looked down and smiled as my cheeks grew warm.

"Why do you always do that when you get a compliment?" Dean asked.

"Do what?" I asked him in return.

"Look down." He responded.

I waited a while before responding. "I'm not used to getting them. I don't remember the last time I had one before I met you."

We shared a smile before turning my attention to the books on the table. Dean ended up helping me study while making some jokes and making me laugh uncontrollably. After leaving the library, it was 8:00 at night and we stood in front of the doors.

"So what are you going to do for dinner?" Dean asked.

I shrugged. "Depends on what I have enough money for."

"Let's go get some Chinese food." He said to me. "I'll chip in."

I looked at him and tucked my hair between my ears.

"What?" Dean asked. "I'm not going to leave you out here by yourself and I'm not going to let you go through this alone."

"Dean, you don't have to do that." I told him, genuinly even though my heart soared knowing that he cared enough to suggest it.

"I want to." He replied. "And I think I may have found a way to sneak into the school. We don't have much time until Winter comes around. It gets really cold here even though you may be used to it. It probably gets pretty cold in New York."

I smiled and nodded. "Pretty cold, but I've gotten used to it."

"See, I remembered where you're from." Dean said with a silly grin.

I couldn't help but laugh and playfully pushed him before we went on our way to the Chinese restaurant.

**A/N: Why do you think Dean stepped in when Roman was about to tell him what Dean had said about how Leah looked? Why do you think that the truth about why Leah didn't accept hanging out with him right away made Dean change his way of thinking? Do you think it'll last? **


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to Alexandria M, caz21, Jenny, 'Guest' and justkimmy for reviewing :) **

The past month and a half has seen Dean and I become a lot closer. We've become best friends and we've also become inseparable. Of course kids at school began to believe that we were now a couple, even though that wasn't true. We denied the rumors even though a part of me wondered if denying them was what I really wanted to do.

I don't know what it was about him, but I was just attracted to him. I've been able to see a different side of Dean since we met and it's a part that only I know of. A part of him that nobody else gets to see because they don't bother to sit and care enough to know anything about Dean.

"How come you're taking so many AP classes?" Dean asked as we went to get something to eat for dinner. We haven't eaten much in the last few days, in an effort to save some money. The only thing that we've been able to eat has been breakfast and lunch from school, which wasn't much but it was something to help us get through to the next day.

"I wanna be a doctor or a scientist." I replied. "Which also explains why I've taken so many math and science courses. But it's also because I can't afford it so I'm trying to see if I can get a scholarship, so I try to keep my gpa up thinking that it'll help out. Are you gonna go to college?"

Dean thought for a moment. "I don't know if college is for me. I eventually wanna open up my own gym or a wrestling school with one of my friends who's been wrestling for years. I don't know if I have the grades for a scholarship. I can't afford college right now, even if I wanted to go."

"I'm sure you'll think of something." I told him softly. "As long as it's something you'll love."

When we got to the pizzeria, we saw Roman sitting at one of the tables, looking through his phone and an untouched pizza in front of him.

"I'll go order." I told Dean as he nodded and walked over to Roman who greeted him immediately.

_**O.O **_

"Who's got your attention on the other side of that phone?" I asked Roman as I sat across from him.

"A girl I met over the weekend. Boy, what a good weekend that was." He responded.

I smirked and shook my head, knowing what he had meant. "I was thinking about something though. Is the college application deadline over yet?"

Roman thought for a moment. "I don't think so. We have another few weeks before it is though. Why?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering." I told him, still thinking. "Do you need to take the SATs?"

"A lot of colleges want to see your SAT scores, so it's best if you just take it in case you apply for a school that wants it." Roman said. "There's an SAT exam coming up soon but next week is the last week to apply for it. After that, you're gonna have to wait until the next date available."

"I see." I nodded. "What about the PSATs?"

Roman looked at me. "What about it?"

"Do you know anything about it?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Not really. I just know that you can get a merit scholarship from taking that test but I think that the scores are used to determine eligibility and qualification for the National Merit Scholarship Program."

"What do you have to do for that scholarship?" I asked.

"What scholarship?" Asked Leah when she came back with our pizzas and sodas. "Hi Roman."

"Hey, Leah." He replied with a smile.

I moved over a bit and let her sit next to me as she put some napkins on the table. "The National Merit Scholarship."

"You have to become a Semifinalist." She replied. "Once you are, you have to fulfill the requirements to advance to Finalist standing. As a Semifinalist, you have to submit a detailed scholarship application which includes essays and information about extracurricular achievements, awards and leadership positions. You also have to have a really really good academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a school official and earn SAT scores that confirm your qualifying test performance."

"Damn." Said Roman. "Sounds difficult."

Leah shrugged. "After that, from what I understand, only a few thousand meet Finalist requirements. By the conclusion of it all, a select group of Finalists are chosen to recieve the scholarship. My only concern for that, is that I don't have enough extracurricular activities and I had to have taken the PSATs my junior year, at least that's what I'm being told is recommended. We're already seniors."

"Try anyways and see what happens." Said Roman. "You never know. Either way, your grades are good enough for one."

I suddenly became quiet, feeling left out of the conversation. Even though Roman was the star of the football team, he still got good grades and had a B average in school. Leah was a straight A student and taking almost all AP courses. My academic achievements aren't the best, but I did try as much as I could in school.

After we finished eating, we talked for a while longer before going our seperate ways. I just wanted to get away for a while and be alone.

_**O.O**_

"Dean, wait up." I said as I quickly walked to catch up to him. He didn't slow down, nor did he even look over at me to see if I was walking beside him like he always did. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He replied quickly. "I'm absolutely fine."

I scoffed. "No, you're not. You won't even look at me."

He stopped and turned to face me. "You and Roman start talking about grades and college and school and whatnot, but what about me? I don't even know if I have the grades to get into a community college, but the two of you are bound to get into some of the best four year colleges in the country. You for your grades and Roman for his football. I'm always left feeling left out because I don't have the grades to be bragging about it like the two of you. I don't do any sports other than wrestling and yet, I'm not on the wrestling team in school because I just can't right now with the situation that we're in."

"Dean, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad." I told him. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know you felt like that."

"I want to feel like I belong for once." Said Dean as he continued. "I want to have something that I could be proud of and something to look forward to. But I don't because I have to make sure that I finish raising myself so that I can begin to focus on what I want to become in life because I don't have it as planned out as you do."

"But..." I started to say before he interrupted me.

He sighed. "Leah, if you want to be around people that are like you - and by that, I mean people who are extremely smart and talented - than maybe you should go back home to New York. You have more friends there and that's your home. Go back to the rest of your family there. I'm sure you'll do better there than what you would here with me."

"What are you saying?" I asked him as tears began to form and fall down my face. After the bond that we have formed since we met, he was really doing this right now?

"Go back home to New York, Leah." He replied. "That's what I'm saying."

"What did I ever do wrong to you?" I asked him, with my temper rising. "If you had a problem with me, you should have came up to me and told me rather than doing this! We're together all the time and you couldn't talk to me about it?"

Dean groaned and walked before quickly stopping and turning around. "Leah, just let me go back to the way that I used to be before I met you. Before you came around, I was an asshole to everybody and I was a loner. I liked being a loner for a while there."

"I go back to New York, then I'll be going back to NOTHING!" I exclaimed. "I literally have no family left. My real father died when I was five and my mother doesn't want me around! I go back home, you really think any of my old friends would help me?"

He stayed quiet, putting his hands in his pockets before I continued. "I'll give you a hint...they won't and you know why, Dean? Since my dad died, I've been to eleven different schools so what friends am I'm going to have?"

Dean looked down and said nothing. "If you really want me to leave, then I hope that the excuse you gave me was legit. Don't think that I know nothing about the nights you leave, saying that you're going go hang out with Roman, when in reality you want to get off so you go fuck some random girl and have her give you a blowjob so that you can get off. A girl that you may never even see again. I know when somebody's lying to me, Dean. If you didn't want to hang out with me, you could have just said it instead of trying to comfort me with the whole wanting to hang out with Roman bullshit."

He looked at me surprised and with guilt in his eyes. "Leah...I wasn't having sex with anyone. I really was with Roman."

"Don't even try, Dean because I don't want to hear it." I told him, in a snappy tone. "I'll get my things together when we get back to school, and I'll be gone by tomorrow at the earliest. I'll find somewhere else to go. You don't have to worry about me anymore."

_**O.O **_

I watched her walk away in the direction of the school without looking back. I went after her, trying to catch up but she wouldn't have it. Leah was extremely upset and I didn't mean for this argument to go downhill as fast as it did and for it to get as bad as it did.

"Leah!" I exclaimed, following her. "Just listen to me!"

She quickened her pace until she began to run after we saw the school in the distance. We snuck in the way we usually did and made our way to the girls locker room. We always made sure to clean up in a way that nobody would ever notice that someone was there over night, much less a guy.

As the night went on, I gave up trying to get her attention and watched as she packed her things. Leah wouldn't listen to me and anything that I would say. I fell into a gaze and left to stand out in the hallway. When I came back into the locker room, Leah had already fallen asleep in her sleeping bag. Looking around, I saw that she indeed had everything of hers packed up except for her toothbrush and a few other things. Looking down, I slipped into my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.

"Leah," I whispered as if she would hear me. "I want you to stay."

_**The next day...**_

I woke up and saw that Leah's things were already gone. I went to the shower and saw that her shampoo, her soaps, everything was gone including Leah herself. Going back to where I was sleeping, I saw a note on the bench.

_'I'm sorry for everything bad that I have caused you since we met. I hope you can find someone who doesn't give you as much trouble as I did. And I hope that you'll go to New York someday and see why I loved it so much. I'll see you around, Dean.. -Leah' _

I crumbled up the paper and threw it, before punching a locker. I was angry at myself for probably being part of the reason for why she left. But I was angry at her because I saw it as somebody else leaving me. I was done. Maybe Leah and I weren't meant to be in each other's lives for long. I was legitamitely saddened by this and I don't let things get to me that easily.

_**A few hours later...**_

"Leah left, but then again, you didn't stop her from leaving either." Roman said as we walked around the mall.

"She wouldn't listen to me." I insisted. "And what was I supposed to say?"

"Then you should have tried harder." Roman replied. I stayed quiet, thinking about what he had said. "You care about her, whether you wanna admit it or not. Why are you letting that scare you?"

I made a face and shook my head. "I'm not. I'm perfectly fine. I don't need her if she's going to just up and leave. I'll be fine."

Roman sighed and shook his head. "Whatever you say man. If saying that is going to get you to believe that, then good luck because I don't believe it myself when you say that and I've known you for years."

"Well, believe it buddy." I told him. "Besides, she thinks I was lying to her about the times where I said I was going to spend some time with you."

"What does she think you were doing?" Roman asked.

I stayed quiet for a moment. "Leah thinks that I was having sex with random girls and that I lied to her about being with you."

"You really _were _with me, but you were also too busy in the guest room with girls." He replied. "Besides, how does she know that when I didn't say anything to her about it?"

"Nobody else knew, right?" I asked him.

Roman shook his head. "I didn't tell anybody. The girls don't go to our school so I doubt they said anything to anyone that we know."

"It was only three times." I announced. "The rest of the times, it just me and you hanging out."

"Then talk to Leah when you see her." Roman said.

I'll be fine. I know I will. I'll see Leah at school on Monday morning like I always do and we'll talk it out and move on from it. I know we will.

If only I can tell myself that enough times to believe it.

**A/N: Do you think Dean may have overdone it a bit in that argument or did he have a right to react and say the things that he did? Where could Leah possibly go? Will she stay in Cincinatti and avoid Dean or will she leave the state all together? ** **Do you think Dean's just putting on a front about how he feels about Leah leaving? **


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you to Sammie94, justkimmy, Alexandria M and corbettluv for reviewing :) **

"Does anybody know if Leah will be coming in today?" Asked Mr. Stapp as he took attendance. She was late today and she hasn't been in school much the last few days.

I looked over at Vanessa who was always with her because they had almost every single class together. "Hey, have you seen Leah at all this weekend?"

She gave me a sad look and shook her head. "I haven't seen her since Friday afternoon. I haven't heard from her either."

Even though I was still upset about her leaving, a part of me still wanted to know that she was okay.

"Where's your girlfriend, Ambrose?" Asked one of the jocks. "Out with your mom?"

A few of the students snickered under their breath and I tried to fight the urge to punch him in the face. "She's not my girlfriend. We're strictly friends, but I bet that she's probably with _your _mom teaching her a thing or two."

A few of my friends laughed under their breath as his smile faded. The idiot turned around in his chair and continued his conversation with the cheerleaders.

About midway through the class, there was a soft knock on the door and Mr. Stapp smiled and signaled for the person to come in. The door opened and a few of the students gasped softly when Leah walked in through the door. She had a jacket in her hand with a hat still on her head. A grey sweater still on and light blue jeans with a black shirt underneath her sweater. Her bookbag hung over her shoulder as she went to the teacher and said something to him. Leah looked beautiful and I couldn't help but notice her again. Even though I wanted to pry my eyes from her, I just couldn't.

I don't know what Leah said to him, but he showed her a seat that was in the front of the room, but near the window. One of the guys whisteled, getting her attention and getting her to look in my direction. We locked eyes for a bit, though it didn't last long. A wave of emotion hit me, but I didn't show it.

"Had a rough weekend, Leah?" Asked the same jock that I shut up.

"Kiss my ass, Antonio." She retorted.

I couldn't help but smile seeing that feisty side of Leah that I liked so much. But then I remembered what happened and got my eyes to go else where as she paid no mind to me while she went to her seat. Looking over, I saw the empty seat next to me that she once occupied and knew that she may no longer sit there again.

When class finally ended, I quickly got my things and began to walk out before the teacher stopped me. "Ms. Richards wants to see you in her office. She didn't say why though, but it sounded important."

I made a face and was interrupted by him before saying anything. "Dean." Mr. Stapp said sternly, knowing what I may have been thinking.

A thud came from within the room and we both looked to see that Leah's bag had fallen on the floor and some of the things that had fallen out were some personal items.

"Oh no." She whispered softly as she slightly panicked and quickly began to pick them up and stuff them back in her bag. I bit my tongue and sighed as I looked down before walking over to her. I bent down and picked up a few of her things and handed them over to her.

Leah looked up at me as she took her things and put them away befoer getting up as she closed her bag. "Thanks."

Breaking her gaze from me and clearing her throat, she fixed her bag and walked away. Notcing the look on my face when she left, Mr. Stapp rested his hand on my shoulder.

"Does she mean something to you?" He asked.

**...**

"Mr. Ambrose, nice seeing you today." Said Ms. Richards, the guidance counselor. "Please, have a seat."

"Am I in trouble?" I asked her. I haven't been in her office since my freshman year so I didn't know what she could possibly want to talk to me about.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, I just wanted to talk to you about the SAT exam coming up this Saturday. I see you applied for it and I wanted to make sure you understood what time to be there and the directions and things like that."

"I understand." I replied. "One of my friends has been helping me out I think I'll be ready."

"You always said you didn't want to go to college, Dean." Ms. Richards told me. "What made you sign up for this exam? Are you planning on applying for college for the fall, because you still have time to do so."

My mind immediately went to Leah and that one night that it was storming outside like crazy. We couldn't sleep so we stayed up all night talking. We were both in pajamas and sharing a bag of chips and a soda. Leah's hair was up in a messy bun, but she still managed to look beautiful.

_'Why do you like school so much?' _I asked her.

_'Because for a while, it makes me forget about the bad things that are going on in my life.' _She responded. _'And because knowledge is the one thing that can give you power because it's something that people can't take away from you if you don't let them.' _

_'You're the reason why I like school.' _I told her.

She smiled. _'What did I do to make you like school, Mr. Ambrose?' _

Leah's smile put me at ease. _'Because you give me something to look forward to everyday by going. You've taught me new things to make school more interesting for a guy like me. And maybe it's because I just like seeing you.' _

We shared a stare and a smile before she looked down with a shade of pink on her cheeks. I smiled at her even more and shared a comfortable silence with her.

Clearing my throat, I cleared my thoughts and put my attention back onto the guidence counselor.

"I just thought that I'd give this a try." I told her. "I um...uh- I filled out my college application. Mr. Stapp helped me out and I was going to wait until I took the test to send them. And...someone once told me that knowledge is the one thing that can't be taken away from you."

Ms. Richards smiled at me. "I'm proud of you. Looking at your grades, you could really get accepted into college, Dean."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "I didn't think my grades were good enough."

"Well, you've improved significantly since last semester." She told me. "You probably haven't noticed, but you're getting more B's in your classes and no more 'Fs' or 'Ds'. You don't even have any 'Cs' this semester. This semester, your attendance has improved significantly and you're rarely ever late anymore and your teachers can't stop giving compliments about you. Whatever's causing this improvement, keep it up. You're doing great."

We talked a little more before she let me go with a note to my next class. Being away from Leah may be harder than I though it would be. Seeing Roman in the hallway as I headed to my next class, I decided to hang around with him until next period.

"I'm having some people over at my house tomorrow night." Said Roman. "Wanna come?"

I thought for a while. "Yeah, I'll come over. What time?"

"The same time as always." He replied. "From eight on."

_**O.O**_

I took both of my bags from my locker and made sure that I had everything that I needed before walking out of the school. I put my jacket on and zipped it up as far as I could and looked around as I sighed. I didn't know how long I would be away, but I knew that it's what I had to do.

I let the office and my teachers know that I had an emergency that I had to take care of and that I would have to be out of school for a while because of it. The truth was that there was no emergency. It was really because my heart was breaking with every step that I took as I walked away from school.

My heart is breaking from the words that Dean had told me a few nights ago. He wants me to go back to New York, but to me it meant that he wanted me to leave and because he didn't want me, or at least not anymore. I guess he doesn't realize how I feel for him. That smile of his makes me so much more comfortable and so much more at ease.

The way he looks at me makes my heart skip a beat. No guy has ever looked at me the way he does. Everything just feels right with him and it's something that I can't ignore. But it seems as if Dean can and it hurts.

When I made it to the bus terminal, I asked for a round trip ticket to New York. I thought that I could take this time to reconsider things right now or at least think about what I really want. It could also help me avoid Dean for a while and not make it more difficult than what it already was, being in the same place with him around.

"You're on your own?" Asked a sweet old man that sat a few seats away from me as I waited for the bus.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm going back home though. To New York."

"You New Yorkers are tough." The guy said. "You'll get through it."

"I hope." I whispered softly as my heart broke even more. I want Dean here with me. Right by my side and he isn't and I wish he was so badly. He always found a way to make me smile, even when I didn't want to. For the first time in my life, someone may finally have my heart and I would gladly let him have it even though we're having a bit of a falling out. I want his heart too and I wonder if I'll ever have it.

_**The next day...**_

I made my way, in the early morning hours, around the tough streets of New York City. It was a bit chilly here, so thankfully I had a jacket and sweater on as well as a few things that I could wear underneath my clothes to help keep warm. I had some money on me that I could try to have last for the time that I'm here.

Making my way down to the subway station, I bought myself a metrocard in case I needed to take the bus or subway somewhere if I didn't have any change. After debating for a bit, I decided to walk around Manhattan for the day. I'll go uptown to the Bronx, tomorrow. My hometown that I haven't seen since moving.

**...**

_'Tell me something that people don't know about you.' I suggested as we were well underway to another sleepless night in the locker room. We sat leaning up against the lockers playing thumb war and making jokes. _

_'My mom started prostituing when I was thirteen.' He told me softly. 'She believed that it was the only way to get money to pay the bills because she didn't want to get a real job. Truth was that as much money as she was making, she used the majority on alcohol and drugs. When we finally got stable again, she would still be gone for days at a time before I'd see her again.' _

_I held his hands in mine and felt him relax as he continued. 'There's times when she looks at me and it's as if she doesn't recognize who I am. Sometimes it's as if she doesn't care. You and Roman are the only stable people in my life and ones that I can actually count on.' _

_'Well, she's missing out on an amazing person.' I told him softly. 'Underneath that tough guy persona you have going on, you're really a good guy, Dean.' _

_The way he looked at me, gave me butterflies in my stomach. I couldn't stop smiling and I didn't want to. He took me in his arms and sat me in between his legs. He wrapped an arm around me and lightly stroked my waist with his thumb. If it wasn't for the little breaks of silence in between our conversations, I wouldn't have noticed. I leaned back against him and felt him rest his chin on my shoulder. Who would have thought that Dean Ambrose would have this side to him? _

**...**

A part of me wanted Dean to just show up. I wanted to find him waiting around the corner for me like he does back in Cincinatti with a big smile on his face when he would see me. I wanted him to walk with me and talk to me. After meeting him, I don't know if I can handle not having him around in my life and it's only been a few days. If I see the sun tomorrow, it's just another reminder that I may have lost him.

I just wanted Dean. Nobody else. Why was that so hard?

**A/N: Anybody surprised that Leah actually left Cinncinati all together? How is she going to make her way in and around the city without Dean by her side like he has been since they met? Is Dean trying to go to Roman's house knowing that other girls will be there and in an effort to convince people that he doesn't care that Leah's gone? How do you think he'll react when he finds out that Leah left? **


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to Alexandria M, justkimmy, ThatGirl54 and corbettluv for reviewing :)**

**A/N: Roman's POV will be added to this chapter. **

***Contains sexual content* **

I grabbed my clothes and everything I could and put it in a bag. I couldn't stand another day or night in this apartment with my mother. All we do lately is fight more than ever before. We can't seem to get along anymore and it's driving us further apart than we've ever been. Usually, I would go to Leah and talk to her about it because she understood it a little better than anyone else, but we haven't talked since last week. I've barely ever see her anymore.

"You don't do anything while you're here, Dean!" Said my mother in her drunken state. It's said that drunken thoughts or words were sober thoughts and feelings.

"I do nothing?!" I exclaimed. "I do everything while you're out for days at a time! I'm the one that cooks and cleans every time that I'm here. I'm the one that makes sure that all of our clothes and bedsheets are washed every week. I make sure that everything is up to your standards and you dare say that I'm the one that does nothing around here?"

She slapped me so hard that it stung more than it usually did when she put her hands on me. "Don't you dare talk to me like that. I am your mother!"

"No, you're not a mother because you're never here to be one!" I yell. "And when you are around, even then you're not a mom because you're to busy being drunk and high to take care of me. Do you know what I go through because of you? Do you even care that I may have lost the one girl that I've ever wanted because of the fear that you have instilled in me about love?"

My mom looked at me without responding to anything that I've just said to her. She pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. It has become a new bad habit for her, and I didn't want to pick up on it either. "Not once have you ever told me that you loved me and not once have you ever showed me that you cared about me. I found a girl that is literally heaven on Earth for me and I can't keep my shit together for her! I probably lost her because of how stupid I was and now I don't think that I'll ever have a chance with her. You don't have to worry about me anymore, Mom. Sorry I was ever a burden on you."

I take everything that I own, which isn't much and look around the apartment, one last time. It was a one bedroom apartment, but it was tiny as hell. My room was the living room which was the center of all the drug parties that my mother would have. There were still bags of cocaine on the table in the middle of the living room and after walking in on my mother and some random guy, having sex on the same couch that I sleep on, that was the last straw for me.

Opening the door, I take a deep breath and walk out for the last time. My mother won't ever see me again if it was up to me.

**...**

When I got to Roman's house, I rang the doorbell and waited for only a few moments before he answered the door. He greeted me and gave me a smile as he let me in the door to his house. Roman's house was big and grand. It was luxurious and it was the dream house for every person out there in my situation. It was like a mansion. Hell, to me, it _is _amansion.

"Can I stay the night?" I asked.

"You can stay as long as you'd like." Roman told me. "You're more than welcomed here."

I nodded. "I still like to ask."

Going upstairs, I went to one of the guest bedrooms and put my things down. I got myself together and went back downstairs to where the party was. It wasn't really much of a party because the only ones there were me, Roman and two girls that I've never seen before a day in my life.

"You need protection?" Roman asked quietly.

"I don't think I want to, tonight." I responded.

Roman looked at me curiously. "Dean Ambrose doesn't want to get a girl tonight? Are you okay?"

I sighed and nodded. "I'm fine, I just don't feel up for it tonight."

He didn't say anything and just nodded. "Okay, that's fine. But if anything, you know where they are."

I went to the kitchen and got myself something to drink. I felt at home sometimes with Roman. We were like brothers and we always had a good time together. His parents liked me and thought that our friendship was truly genuine, which it was. His kitchen though was just the same size as my apartment.

"Hey, what's your name?" Asked the blonde that came into the kitchen.

Looking up, I saw her and was immediately reminded of Leah when I saw her blue eyes. I mentally cursed as I cleared my throat and drank some water.

"Dean. What's yours?" I asked.

"Samantha." She replied. "You don't look to happy."

The girl walked up to me and began playing with my shirt. "I have a lot of things on my mind, so I'm a bit occupied."

"Maybe I can help out with that." She said in a lustful voice.

I looked at her and saw Leah standing in front of me. I shook my head, as if clearing my eyes in an effort to really look. But it was Samantha standing there instead. I was disappointed, not seeing Leah's sweet smile in front of me and my heart hurt. I was hoping to see her tonight, but it's obvious that she may not make it. Roman wouldn't do that to me, inviting her over when there was going to be other females in the house.

I grabbed her hand and took her upstairs. Taking a detour into Roman's room, I got a condom from his drawer and walked back out into the room that I was going to stay in. Closing the door, my lips attacked hers and my hands began to urgently caress her body. We quickly took our clothes off and tossed them on the floor.

I skipped the foreplay and went straight into putting on the condom on what was becoming an erection. I spread her legs open and slid in, feeling the warmth of her body as I began to rock in and out. Her moans began to fill the room as she held on tightly to my arms and shoulders.

Seeing the look on her face, I suddenly began to think about Leah again. I just couldn't shake her from my thoughts and having sex with another girl wasn't making it any better. I tried to enjoy what was going on at the moment, but I couldn't. All I wanted was Leah and for her to be here with me.

I quickened my pace to see if it would make it end faster, but to no avail after a few more minutes. After a few moments of trying to hold it in, not wanting to ruin the moment for her, I just couldn't anymore. After a quick release, I pulled out without waiting for her and threw out my condom. Samantha sat up in bed and looked at me confused and annoyed.

"I wasn't done." She argued. "What's your problem?"

"I just can't." I told her. "I'm sorry. You seem like a great girl, but I just couldn't continue any longer. I think it's best if you just go back downstairs or go home or something. Just know that it has nothing to do with you."

"Can I at least do one thing for you?" She asked.

I looked at her. "What would that be?"

_**O.O **_

I was in the living room, on the couch as Megan moved her hips up and down my erected member. Her moans filled the living room as I thrusted into her every time she slid down and palmed her breasts with my hands. Megan's center was heaven right now and I couldnt' get enough. I placed my hands on her hips to thrust a little more into her and felt her beginning to clamp down on my member. I thumbed her clit and felt her hips losing control a few moments later as she released her liquid all over my erection. A few thrusts later, I groaned as I came into the condom, and saying her name. Getting up, I threw the condom out and went back to the living room, watching with a smirk as Megan got dressed.

I was about to put on my pants when she gently pushed me back down on the couch and sat down next to me. Leaning over, she took my member in her warm mouth and began to slowly bob her head. I groaned in pleasure and quietly cursed as I became hard in her mouth. Digging my hand into her hair, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment. I palmed her breasts again with one hand and felt my member beginning to throb a few moments later. It wasn't long before I was releasing my liquid deep down her throat and she was taking it all in.

We both got dressed and saw that Samantha had come downstairs with a look of disbelief on her face. Her friend asked what was wrong and she replied with Dean not wanting to finish what they had going on upstairs. I knew that something had to be wrong with Dean. He was never the one to not finish his business with a girl and for him to do so was out of character for him.

I let the girls out and got things together before going back upstairs after a few minutes of just thinking. After coming out of the shower, I knocked on the door and saw Dean open it a few minutes later with his hair wet and in sweats, indicating that he had taken a shower as well.

"Dean, what's wrong?" I asked him. He blinked a few times before letting me in. His bag was at the side of the bed, on the floor and he looked different. He wasn't taking care of himself it seemed. He had started to arrive to classes late, though some would consider it a slip up after the positive strides that he been making since the beginning of the school year. "You're usually the kind to go all night."

"Trust me, I can go all night. I have the stamina, believe me on that. But...I just couldn't." He replied. "I thought I could, but I can't. All I kept thinking about is Leah. Everytime I looked down at her, I saw Leah. I closed my eyes and saw Leah. Samantha would speak and I heard Leah's voice. Her blue eyes reminded me of Leah's. She's all I want, Roman. I was kind of hoping that she would be here tonight, even though I knew that there was a possibility that she wouldn't be. I miss her, Roman and it scares me."

I sat next to him and looked at the floor. "What scares you?"

"I'm not good at this emotional stuff." Dean said, shaking his head. "It's always been hard for me and you know that."

"But it may be good for you to talk it out." I told him in a suggestive tone. "It'll do more damage if you hold it in."

Dean stayed quiet for a moment. "That I feel for her as much as I do. I've never had or wanted a real relationship, and yet with her, it's what I want. It's _all _that I want. The things that have happened to me emotionally, because of my mom...I just don't want to get so close to someone and then get hurt."

"You can't help who you fall for, Dean." I responded to him. "You just happened to fall for Leah. But you being apart from her is killing you inside, Dean. I can see it in your eyes. You're empty without her."

"I wanted to try to let her get her moment, but I just couldn't continue knowing that I had another girl in my head." Dean continued. "It felt as if I was trying to forget her, but that's the thing. I can't forget the girl who has my heart. There were numerous times when I almost called her by Leah's name."

We stayed quiet for a moment. "Have you and Leah...?"

Dean shook his head. "No, we've never even kissed. I haven't talked to her since that night."

"Did you mean it when you told her to go back to New York?" I asked him.

He looked me in the eyes. "No, I didn't mean any part of it when I told her to go back home."

Dean was being honest. "So then, why did you say it?"

"Because I was stupid." He replied quietly as he looked down in sadness.

_**O.O**_

We were leaving Mr. Stapp's calss for the day when he stopped Vanessa. I lingered around a bit, to wait for her.

"Can you tell Leah that I'm proud of her for doing her assignments and her quizzes and handing them in even though she's going through a tough time right now." He told her. My ears immediately went to their conversation when I heard her name. "But she needs to be back to hand in her final project in person. I just want her to be safe, academic wise and not risk her being absent any longer."

"I will." Vanessa told him. "She responds right away when I send her the assignments."

Vanessa walked up to me and as walked out of the room. Leah came back into my mind again for the thousandth time since we stopped talking. I haven't seen her at all in the past two weeks and niether has a lot of people in school who know who she is.

"Where is she?" I asked Vanessa out of curiousity. I thought she'd be the one person to know.

"Leah?" She asked and I nodded. "Dean, she went back to New York."

I stopped dead in my tracks as my feet couldn't seem to move me any further. I didn't want to believe what any part of what I was just told. "She left to New York?"

Vanessa nodded. "Leah left two weeks ago. She told the teachers that it was an emergency, but knowing her situation, I'm not sure. She hasn't given me a real reason for why she left let alone any reason other than her thinking that it would help her out with something."

"When is she coming back?" I asked her sadly. "She is coming back, right?"

"Leah will come back." Vanessa replied. "I just don't know when. She bought a round trip ticket to New York. Why would you get a round trip ticket if you're not going to come back and she's been doing every single assignment from every class we have together so why would she not come back after going through all that trouble?"

Silence filled the air as the hallways became empty. "Leah has to come back to take her finals."

Vanessa nodded. "Exactly. With some of these teachers, no matter how good of a student you are, they won't allow you to make up their final. If Leah fails this semester, she won't be able to start college in the fall unless she goes to summer school to make it up. If she doesn't want to go through all of that, then she needs to come back."

It felt as if somebody had just hit me in the chest. It was one of those things where it feels as if your chest is literally hurts when something is said or done that you don't want to hear or see.

I'm not much of an emotional guy, but right now at this very moment, I was being torn apart. My heart was breaking and I didn't know if I could handle it. Leah actually left the state and went hundreds of miles away.

Roman came up to us and asked what was wrong. Vanessa told him what happened and I'm glad that she did. I didn't know if I had it in me to say anything without lashing out and misplacing my frustration on someone else.

"When is she coming back?" Asked Roman.

"I don't know." Vanessa replied looking at the calender in her phone. "But I don't think it'll be long before she does. Finals are coming up soon but they'll be right here before you know it. Besides, she won't last long without Dean."

It caught my attention. "Why is that?"

"Leah talks about you a lot." She replied. "It started off with her saying how much she misses you. Leah doesn't always make it obvious that she's talking about you, but I know her well enough to know who she's talking about without her having to say their name. Always asking how you are and if you're doing good in school. Leah misses you a lot more than what she says."

I wasn't going to give in that easily though. I was still hurting at the news that Leah had left. I didn't think that she would really go. I didn't mean it when I told her too, but she believed it. Leah was the one thing keeping me from going crazy from this lifestyle that we live and the only one keeping me in school and in check. What the hell am I going to do without her here until she decides to come back?

I want to crawl into a hole and not come back out until I knew that Leah was around again. Even then, I don't know if I'd have the balls to face her after what I told her. How could I be so damn stupid? Now she has my heart all the way in New York and I didn't know if I could handle that for long. I meant it when I told my mother that Leah was my heaven on Earth. I was just too stupid to keep my shit together for her long enough to realize how much she truly meant to me. I feel broken without her by my side.

"I have to go." I told Roman and Vanessa. "If anyone asks for me, then say I had an emergency. I'll see you later, Roman."

"Dean, wait!" Vanessa exclaimed. I hesitated to turn around, but did. "Do you want me to say anything to Leah? I'll be talking to her later today."

I thought for a moment. "Is she happy?"

Vanessa shook her head. "No, she's not. Leah's miserable without you. You always found a way to make her happy, Dean. Even when nobody else could. You should go after her."

"I don't know." I replied. "We're just friends. I was an asshole to her, I doubt she'll want to see me."

She scoffed. "Try telling that to people who'll actually believe that there's nothing there between you and her. You just don't realize that there is."

"Would she come back for me?" I asked curiously.

Vanessa looked at me carefully. "Only if you're the one that tells Leah that you want her too. It's going to be harder for her to believe it if she hears it from somebody else. Leah could take that as us just saying that to get her to come back earlier. So if you truly and genuinely want her to come back to Cinncinati then _you _have to tell her yourself, Dean. Not me or Roman no matter how much she listens to us."

What if she doesn't feel like loving me? All of me?

**A/N: What did you think about Dean stopping himself with the girl at Roman's house and what do you think about the reason why? As Dean's feelings for Leah grow more and more each day and come to light, will Dean go after her to relieve his broken heart or will he just wait around hoping that Leah will return? Do you think he's trying to come up with excuses for why he shouldn't go after her or is it because he's just scared of what might happen if he does? **


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to Alexandria M, corbettluv, jessica619, and justkimmy for reviewing :) **

**A/N: This chapter is inspired by the song 'I don't Feel Like Loving You Today' by Gretchen Wilson and 'Stay' by Florida Georia Line. The same song has also been sung/performed by Black Stone Cherry. **

It has been three weeks since I left and came back to New York. It's been a bit tough, but I've been able to handle it so far. It's becoming harder and harder though to be here. Things are expensive and I'll run out of money if I stay any longer. I've seen plenty of familiar places and they bought back memories. Some of them were good and happy memories while others weren't so great.

Going back to the library to talk to my friend, Vanessa, I blinked a few times as I read the email that she had sent me. One email was with all of the assignments for that day for school, while the other was telling me about what's going on in school, outside of class. In the second email, she told me about how Dean missed me and how he wanted me to come back. It was the first time since I left in where she was the first one to bring him up instead of me.

Vanessa had told me that Dean was beginning to start up on his old patterns again since I had left. He was coming late to class and was starting to be absent all together, or cut classes. Vanessa also added that she didn't see Dean at the testing site when it was time for them to take their SATs. He had registered for the exam and never came. Not even if he was late, he didn't show up at all. A part of me hoped that he was okay and the other part of me wondered why he was going on a downhill spiral. Dean was doing so good and now he's not okay.

"So you're leaving next week?" Asked a woman that I've known since right before I left.

I had walked into her salon half an hour ago and kept busy by cleaning up and talking to customers.

"Yeah, if nothing happens between now and then to make me leave any earlier." I responded. The woman's name is Brittney and she was a blonde woman who was born and raised in Manhattan. She was a licensed cosmotologist and owned her own beauty salon in the city. Her had a small bedroom with a bathroom and a small fridge and microwave in the top floor of the salon and it overlooked the entire shop. She had allowed me to stay there when she saw that I was back and said that I could stay for as long as needed.

"You need to get back to school, Leah." She said as I helped her clean up. "Missing so many days isn't good. It could prevent you from graduating on time with your class."

I sighed. "I know. That's why I'm going back next week instead of waiting until next semester to go back."

We stayed quiet for a while. "Are you willing to let him go?"

I looked at her. "Willing to let who go?"

"That guy in your heart." Brittney replied. "You think I don't hear that song that you're constantly having on replay and don't tell me that it's your favorite song, because even I don't replay that kind of a song as much as you do. Even if it really is my favorite."

Not having anything to say, I stayed quiet for a while before responding. "I don't want to let him go. But what if he really doesn't want me?"

"Then it wasn't meant to be." She simply replied. "But what if he does? Don't spend the rest of your life wondering 'what if'. There's a reason why the two of you crossed paths. There's always a reason, it's just figuring out what that is that makes it a bit difficult sometimes. Go back to Cincinatti and talk to him. You can't avoid that boy forever, Leah."

I nodded, taking in what she was saying. She had a point and I couldn't agree more with what she told me. I still had one question in mind though.

"Brittney?" I asked and watched her turn around to face me. "How do you know you're in love?"

She smiled at me. "It's different for everyone so I'm not sure if I can give you an exact answer as to how you know. But what I can tell you is that when it happens...you'll know."

_**O.O **_

I walked through the school hallways absent mindedly as another week went by without Leah. I've been trying to get myself back on track, but it's been hard. I didn't have her to motivate me to keep going like she always did.

At first, it started out as me trying to impress Leah once I saw how smart she is. But then it became into my doing better because I was motivated to do better. She gave me a reason to do good in school and something to look forward to everyday. When I would ahve given up, Leah was right there by my side encouraging me to keep going. There were times when she didn't even have to say anything for me to keep myself together. Her smile and presence alone was enough to do the trick.

I walked into Ms. Richard's office today and sat down in across from her after closing the door.

"How are you feeling today, Mr. Ambrose?" She asked.

I scratched the beard that was now growing on my face. "I don't know. It's been a rough couple of weeks for me."

"What's going on, Dean?" The guidence counselor asked. "You were doing so well and now your teachers are concerned that you're getting back into your old ways. Is everything okay?"

I hesitated to say anything for worry that she would say that it was something silly like people always told me when they asked what was wrong. I didn't want her to know that it was mainly because of a girl either.

"I've been having some problems at home, is all." I replied. I looked down, not wanting to see her reaction.

"Do you need any assistance?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Thanks, but I think I could handle it."

Ms. Ricahrds sighed and nodded. "I see you submitted your college application but that you didn't show up for your SATs."

"I submitted my application?" I asked her, almost confused. I don't remember ever submitting them. In fact, I never did.

"It shows that you did." She told me. "Unless there was a mistake."

I thought for a moment and cleared my throat. "I think I may have submitted it and probably just forgot that I did. I'll check to make sure."

After a few more minutes, I walked out and saw Roman closing his locker when I turned the corner. Walking up to him, I leaned against the lockers and looked around after greeting him.

"So I was thinking, just now, that my college application is missing." I told him. "I haven't seen it in almost a month and I don't remember where I put it. Ms. Richards just told me that I submitted them, but I don't remember ever doing that. Is that why I can't find them because I don't believe that I ever gave it in to begin with."

Roman stayed quiet for a few moments before responding. "I may have given it in for you."

I looked at him and nodded. "Why didn't you tell me? Roman, you knew I was looking for it all this time and you didn't tell me why I couldn't find it. You didn't even ask if it was okay for you to give it in for me."

"Because I knew you'd say no." Roman replied. "Ever since Leah left, you've been a mess and you aren't you anymore. You think you would have submitted those applications on your own and before the deadline, after she left, Dean?"

I said nothing, knowing that he was right but I tried to play it off. "What does this have to do with Leah?"

"It has everything to do with Leah!" Roman exclaimed. "For once, you had someone at your side making you happy. With Leah, you were the Dean that I met all those years ago. The Dean that I became friends with in the first place. She was the one person that was great for you because she understood you and your situation a lot better than the majority, if not all of the people that are in this school. Leah bought out the best in you and that sparkle was put back into your eyes. Instead of sitting there being depressed about Leah not being here, you should be out there going after her so that she can come back!"

"And what it I can't make her come back?" I asked. "I'm not trying to make up excuses, but what if Leah wants nothing to do with me? You don't realize how hard it is for me to get close to someone for fear of getting hurt, Roman. I feel like loving her every single day and I can't help but think about what it she doesn't feel like loving me."

Roman just shook his head and looked away as he turned around. "I was going to tell you today at lunch, that I found out early this morning, from Vanessa where in New York Leah is."

It caught my attention, but I couldn't bother to look at my best friend.

"If you still care about wanting Leah to come back, then she's in Manhattan staying with a lady that she knows." Roman added. "She said that Leah told her that she'd be coming back within a week or so. But if I was you, Dean...I wouldn't wait until then."

_**O.O **_

I was in the Bronx visint S.t Raymonds Cemetary, to see my father. Before he died, everything was right. It was perfect and I was the happiest that I ever was. He was the only guy that ever loved me as much as he did. I spent more time with him than I ever did with my own mother. I was his little girl and he did anything and everything for me.

"I miss you." I whispered softly. "Why did you have to go?"

I knew that nothing could have been done about what had happened, but it still hurt after all these years. I was without my best friend. My protector.

One day, around the time of my birthday, my dad didn't come pick me up. I thought that it was because he had to work late, which he had to do sometimes. It meant more money for us and even though I understand now, why he did it, it made me sad at the age of 5 to know that I would have to wait until dinner time to see him.

Dad didn't come home that night. The next morning, I found out that he had passed away from a car accident with a drunk driver. His injuries were too severe and he died at the hospital. It's why I stopped celebrating my birthday. Our birthdays were one day apart and he died the day before mine.

"It's been horrible since you left, Dad." I continued. "Mom doesn't want me and her new husband only wants me for sex. She thinks that I'm trying to take him away from her and I'm not. I don't even like him, Dad and she doesn't believe me. It's obvious that she doesn't because she allowed him to kick me out and she hasn't looked for me since as far as I'm converned. He's nothing like you. I just wish everything was the way that it was before you left. Everybody was happy when you were around and you were the best dad I ever had."

I allowed the silence to fill the air as I thought to myself and began to cry. "Please give me a sign that everything will be okay. Daddy, please help me. I need you."

**...**

Going back to Brittney's salon, I just wanted to be alone. I didn't want to be bothered by anybody and I just wanted to read my books after taking a hot shower. After all of the tears that I cried yesterday when I saw my dad, I didn't think that I had any tears left inside of me. I was tired out and didn't have tolerance for a lot of things today.

When I got back to the salon a little over an hour later, I helped Brittney clean up a bit before going up to my little room for the night. I took a hot shower and when I came out, I heard some talking coming from downstairs. When I looked, I couldn't see anyone but still heard the voices.

"Please, I need to find her." The guy said. He had on a black hat and a black coat on with jeans and sneakers. It was really chilly today in the city, making it known that winter was on it's way. "She left a few weeks ago and came here to New York. I was told that she may be in the area."

"I've seen her around." Replied Brittney. "Why did you let her go in the first place?"

"Because I was stupid." He replied in a gritty voice. "I got jealous that she had found a guy that she had something in common with. I got jealous that he could give her something that I thought that I wouldn't be able to and that was a guy who had the looks and the grades...the whole package basically. I didn't want to change who I was for her or anybody else, but I want her to be happy with me. I want to be the one who puts a smile on her face everyday and the one to make sure that she's okay and has everything that she wants in life. Leah's my heaven on Earth and I'm tired of being scared of coming after her. She makes me want to change for the better. Leah brings out the best in me and makes me the happiest that I've ever been in my life. I'm here for _Leah. _Believe me or not, it's up to you. But know that I'm being completely honest with you. I came all the way here from Cincinatti to get her back."

Recognizing the voice, I was surprised. "Dean?"

The guy turned around to show the blue eyes guy standing in front of me. I blinked my eyes a few times and saw that he didn't disappear and change into someone else. It really was Dean standing in front of me three and a half weeks after I left.

"So this is the guy, huh?" Asked Brittney. I gave her a look as my cheeks grew pink. Tears filled my eyes as she left the room to give us privacy.

"I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?" He asked.

Nodding, tears began to run down my face. The pad of his fingers wiped my tears dry as I fell into his arms and took in his scent. His strong arms wrapped around me tightly and held me in them for what felt like eternity until we both pulled back.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him softly.

"I want you to come back, Leah." Dean replied. "Someone knocked some sense into me, to finally come after you. I've been so scared that I've kept myself from doing anything since finding out that you left. I'm sorry for the things that I've said, Leah."

I couldn't find the words to say. "You told me to come back here. It was basically as if you were saying that you didn't want me. Why should I believe that you want me to go back?"

"Because I wouldn't have come all the way over here if I didn't mean it." Said Dean. "I've been through hell since we stopped talking and I've been torn apart since I found out that you left. I need you. I realized that what I did was wrong and I need to make it up to you."

"You broke my heart, by telling me to leave Dean." I told him honestly. A flash of pain went across his eyes. "The only way that I told myself that I would ever come back is if you were the one to tell me yourself that it's what you wanted. But it hurt, Dean. The last few weeks have been the hardest for me because all I wanted was for you to be by my side every single day like you used to be. I just wanted _you_."

Dean took off his hat, revealing his dirty blonde hair that was messy from wearing the hat. "I'm sorry, Leah. Please give me a chance to make it up to you."

_**O.O**_

I was practically begging Leah to give me a chance.

"I can't forget it just like that." She replied.

"I understand." I told her. "But please give me a chance."

Leah said nothing. "Give me a reason."

"Because you're the only one I want." I responded honestly. "And I can't see myself without you right here by me."

"How do I know you won't tell me to leave again?" She asked me quietly.

I looked at her before responding. "Because I can't bear the thought of possibly losing you." I don't think I'll be able to take it. I can barely keep it together now and I don't even know if you'll forgive me."

Leah turned around and walked out of the room. She turned around when she realized that I wasn't following her.

"Are you gonna stay down here?" She asked. "It's more comfortable upstairs."

Turning around before I could answer, she continued to walk and I quickly went after her knowing that I didn't have anywhere else to go in a city that I've never been to in my life. When we got upstairs, there was a bed that was neatly done with dark red covers and sheets as well as red pillow cases. There was a small bathroom and a small fridge and a microwave. Like the ones that you have in a hotel room.

"It's not much, but it's something for the time being." Said Leah.

I put my things down and took my coat off. Leah was quiet towards me and she had every right to be. I wasn't blaming her for it, but it was killing me not hearing her voice.

"We're gonna go in a bit to get something eat." Leah said. "With there being a small television up here as well, I was thinking that we could bring our food back here so that we could watch t.v. I want to take advantage of having a this kind of luxury for as long as we can."

I nodded, agreeing and decided to take a quick shower before going back out after Leah said that it was okay. When I came out, she was already ready with her coat by her side and her sweater on as she watched the news. Her blue eyes looked up at me and it had a softness that I didn't expect to see in them but a softness that I missed seeing.

_**An hour later...**_

We had just gotten back about fifteen minutes ago and Leah was busy flipping through the channels to see what interesting was on. With there being nothing, and both of us not being in the mood for news we decided to watch E! for a repeat of an episode.

"Dean?" Leah said quietly. "When are you going back to Cincinatti?"

"The day after tomorrow." I replied.

She stayed quiet for a bit as she began to eat her food. "If you ask me to go with you, I'll go. Please don't leave me here, don't go back without me."

I looked at Leah who was now serious and I could tell by the sound of her voice that she meant what she was saying. "That's why I came here. You really wanna come back with me?"

Leah nodded. "Yeah. I was kinda hoping that you'd come after me. To me, it's a way of saying that you really care. Was it Roman that knocked some sense into you?"

"You heard that, huh?" I asked with a small chuckle when she nodded. "Yeah, it was him. He said some things and it made me realize that even though it's okay to be scared, I can't let that stop me from going after what I want."

"You say you want me..." Leah began to say and stayed quiet.

I waited a while to see if she said were to say anything else. When she didn't, I took the opportunity to say what I had meant.

"I like you, Leah." I told her. "And I like you a lot. You're all I think about and you're all I want. I've never wanted a relationship with anyone before, but with you it's all I want, Leah. You're the first girl that I've admitted my feelings to."

"I thought Dean Ambrose didn't do that." Leah said with a small smile.

Giving her a smile of my own, my eyes lingered on her for a moment. "You're worth it. But when that Brittney lady said that I was the guy...what was she talking about?"

Leah blushed and looked away momentarily. "I might have made it obvious that I had a guy in my mind the entire time here. Besides, I have a picture of you and me by the bed. She may have seen it when she came up here one day to see if I was okay."

"So you've been thinking about me also?" I asked.

She blushed even more. "I just so happen to like you, too. That's why I care so much about what you said. It's why I care so much about anything that you say to and about me. It's because of that, that I've missed you so much more than I thought I would."

**A/N: Will Leah stick to her answer and go back with Dean? How will Dean make it up to Leah for what he did/said to her? Do you think Roman had a right to submitt Dean's college applications without telling him anything about it until he was confronted about it? **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you to jessica619, Alexandria M and DeeMarie426 for reviewing :)**

"Where the hell have you been?" Asked Roman when he saw me in school this morning. We haven't talked since the day I left to go to New York and I understand why he was wondering where I was. Looking into my locker to put my bags away, I was distracted a bit because I was too busy thinking about the same girl that's been in my head for weeks.

"I went to New York." I simply replied. "Don't worry, it's because I wanted to."

Roman's eyes widened. "Did you find Leah?"

"I'm right here." Someone said from behind Roman. When we both looked, it was Leah walking up to us with a smile on her face and her two bags in hand. She had on blue jeans, and a blue shirt with a grey sweater and a black coat. Her long brown hair was in a braid, showing more of her eyes. Roman and Leah hugged after greeting each other before she walked over to me. I gave her a hug that lasted a little longer than usual until Roman cleared his throat. Leah looked away shyly before going to her locker afterwards, and putting her bag away.

"Roman...I just wanted to say thanks for submitting my application for college." I told him while she wasn't paying attention. "I know you were just trying to be a good friend and I appreciate that. I apologize for how I acted, you were just trying to help."

We shook hands and nodded. "It's alright. I know you were going through a rough patch, but regardless, I should have told you instead of waiting until you said something."

People who recognized Leah were beginning to greet her as they walked past and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I've been thinking of ways to make it up to her and I've started by leaving notes for her. I watched as she looked down and bent over to pick something up. It was the first note of possibly more to come, that I had slid into her locker and watched as she smiled before folding it back up and putting it into her folder that she held underneath her books.

"Dean, let's go to class." Leah said when the bell rang.

"Can we ditch today?" I asked a bit tired and not wanting to go. I had gotten back into the habit of not going to class as much or as early as before and I know it's a bad habit that I needed to get out of.

Leah gave me a look and it was enough for me to grab my books and close my locker. I cleared my throat when I looked at Roman and heard him chuckle as he looked at me.

"I'm - uh - gonna go to class." I told him. "I'll see you around...yeah."

We patted each other on the back and made our way to class.

"Can I sit next to you again?" Leah asked as she held on to my arm.

I smiled at her. "Of course. You don't have to ask."

We got into the room and saw Mr. Stapp smile at Leah. "Welcome back, Ms. Lopez."

"Thanks." Leah replied with a smile. "When are the papers due?"

"At the end of the week, but I'll gladly take yours now if you have it." Mr. Stapp replied. "Do you have yours, Mr. Ambrose?"

I blinked a few times and dug through my books and folder until I found it, completely finished. I stayed up reading it over and over again to make sure it's what I wanted to give in. I went to my seat with Leah walking behind me and saw Antonio staring.

"Hey, Leah." He said. "Would you like to go out with me sometime?"

I sat in my seat and looked at her as she sat down. "No thanks."

His face dropped as he looked down. "But nobody ever turns me down."

"Well I just did." Leah replied. "You can turn around now and go on with your day."

I chuckled softly an saw her smile at me.

"Class, if you need to work on your papers, do so now." Mr. Stapp began after taking attendance. "They are due at the end of the week and if you don't hand it in, there's a good chance that you'll fail the class. You don't want to stay here another semester for failing a class and having everyone look at you as the one who didn't graduate with them. This is your senior year. Don't mess it up by not doing what you're supposed to and having to suffer the consequences at the end of the year."

"I was thinking that maybe we can spend Christmas and New Years together." I told Leah quietly. Her blue eyes looked over at me and there was a sparkle in them.

"That sounds like a good idea." She replied. "I don't wanna spend it alone. But that doesn't get you off the hook."

"Yeah, sure." I replied, nodding. I broke out into a chuckle when she smiled, though I knew that she was serious. "Do'nt worry. I'll get back in your good graces."

I suddenly got this urge to just kiss her. I wanted to take her face in my hands and feel Leah's lips against mine. Taking my eyes off of her pink lips, I shook my head to clear them of the thougts I had in them.

After class finished, we went to our next class after putting our books away and it was Gym. We hated the class for how boring it was, but it was like a free period for us. We didn't do anything other than a few warm ups and then sat down on the bleachers. I was about to talk about if she wanted to hang out for lunch but something else came to mind. Waiting outside of the gym doors while the students continued to pour out, I found myself stroking her arms as she rested against the wall.

_**O.O**_

I rested my arms on Dean's shoulders and laced my fingers together behind his neck. Playing with his hair, Dean's hands slid down my back to my waist. I felt like I was in heaven, being in this kind of embrace with him and I didn't want to let him go. Dean still had some making up to do, even though he's been doing a lot of it the last few days. I wasn't going to give in that easily, no matter how tempting it was to ask him for more at the moment.

Sighing happily when he began to whisper sweet words in my ear, I bit my lip and closed my eyes. It was like music to my ears and my heart raced, nearly beating out of my chest and into my ears. When the gym teachers announced that we could start going into the gym, our attentions were bought back into reality and away from the world that involved just the two of us.

_**...**_

"Rumors are starting again that you and Dean are dating." Said Vanessa. She was one of my few friends in this school and if it wasn't for her sending me the assignments for the time that I was in New York, I would most likely fail the semester because of how many days I've missed.

"Let them say it." I told her.

Vanessa looked at me. "Are you two dating?"

I thought for a moment and stayed quiet. "No, we're not. But we do have feelings for each other."

"This is Dean Ambrose we're talking about." Said Vanessa. "Since when is he the dating type?"

"He can be a really nice guy." I told her, defending Dean. "He's been good to everyone this semester, has he not?"

Vanessa thought for a moment. "That doesn't change my opinion of dating as far as Dean goes."

I blinked a few times and frowned as I looked around. I saw Dean talking with some of his friends and laughing.

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad." She added. "I just dont' want you to get hurt by someone who's just not the dating type of guy."

"What if it doesn't matter to me?" I asked.

She looked over at me. "That's on you. Just trying to help."

When Dean came to sit next to me, his smile faded when he noticed that I kept my eyes forward, and didn't budge or even flinch. "What's wrong?"

Grabbing his hand, I got up and took him aside. "Did something happen between you and Vanessa while I was gone? Or you and any other girl in this school that I should know about?"

Dean's eyes widened in disbelief. "No! Who said anything about me doing something with any girl in this school?"

"Nobody." I told him quietly. "But Vanessa keeps bothering me about how you're not the dating type of guy and how she doesn't want me to get hurt. I understand that she doesn't want me to get hurt, we're friends, but I'm not going to let her try to convince me that I shouldn't do anything with you because of rumors that we're dating and because of what she thinks about you. I just need to make sure that with your feelings for me, that you're ready for a commitment if that were to ever happen between us."

"Leah, I promise you that nothing ever happened with me and Vanessa since the day that her and I met." He told me. "Not with her or any other girl in this school. I'm not going to risk anything with you for something that she or anyone else tries to buzz in your ear. They say I'm not the dating type, then let them. You want me to prove to you that I'm willing to commit to you, then I'll show you. Go out with me tomorrow night."

"On a date?" I asked him, almost surprised.

Dean nodded. "Absolutely. A date, just you and me. Let them think what they want, but I'm not going to let you think that I'm not capable of loving someone because believe me when I say that I am."

He looked at me before walking away. But this time, I saw something in his blue eyes that I just never saw before. It was a look of desire, but it was a desire that didn't require lust. It was a want that didn't require physical intimacy. It was more of an emotional level and I couldn't put my finger on it.

I knew that Dean had gotten a bit annoyed but what just happened and I blamed myself a bit for that. I never doubted him when it came to romance and I never doubted that he was capable of ever having a successful relationship with someone.

_**O.O**_

Opening my locker, I see a note fall out from the bottom. I picked it up and saw that it was Leah's handwriting. I had noticed it immediately, seeing her handwriting enough times to remember what it looks like, even with my eyes clothes.

_'I'm sorry about earlier today. I'd like to go out on that date if the offer still stands. Did you really think I'd turn down you taking me out on a date? - Leah'_

I smiled as I looked at the paper that she had neatly signed and drew a few things. Seeing Roman approaching me, I closed the note back up and put it in my pocket before he noticed anything.

"I'm taking Leah out on a date tomorrow night." I told him quickly. He smiled when he heard the news.

"Dean's growing up." Was all Roman said.

Giving him a look, I closed my locker. "Are you gonna give me some advice or not? I've never done this before and I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do."

_**The next night...**_

Roman allowed me to get ready at his place and gave me a few tips before heading out the door. Leah was next door at his cousin's house since she had become the best of friends with them and one of their girlfriends, Trinity.

"You really like this girl." Roman said. "So you take your time with her. Don't rush into it and don't force it. Things should come naturally. The good thing is that you two have already built a friendship and that's a good foundation to have going into this kind of relationship." 

"People are saying that I'm never going to commit." I told him.

Roman looked at me. "Dean, since when do you care about what others think?"

"I don't!" I exclaimed, putting on my shoes. "But I care about what Leah thinks. I don't want the bad things that others say about me to have her think that I'm some kinda of douche bag when she sees the good in me."

The doorbell rang and we knew that it was Trinity and Roman's cousins with Leah. I sighed and made sure I was ready to go while Roman went downstairs to answer the door .I heard them greet each other and walked out of the room that I was in. Going downstairs, the first person that my eyes went to was Leah.

She had on a pink shirt wtih grey skinny jeans and black boots that reached half way up her calf. Leah had on a sweater with a black coat and that was unzippered and her long brown hair was out, reaching her hips. I grew weak when her blue eyes reached mine with a smile. Leah's turning me into a softie and I shook my head knowing that if it was any other girl, I wouldn't be feeling like this.

Roman turned to me as I put on my jacket. "Tonight, don't worry about everybody else. Just focus on you and Leah. Nobody else is making you happy right now, other than her. She's the only one you're dating, not the whole school, so don't worry about what they're thinking."

He gave me the keys to his car and told us to have fun as we made out way out into the cold air that was taking over Cincinatti. When we got in the car, it was silent as we made our way out of the driveway.

I told her, reassuringly. "As for tonight, I thought that maybe we could go to the movies. I know that you've been wanting to see that new movie so I thought we could see that and maybe grab a bite to eat afterwards."

"That sounds good." She replied. I grew silent again until we got to the movies and helped her out of the black, Tahoe SUV.

Getting in line and asking for two tickets, Leah knew that I was thinking about something, though she didn't bother to address it at the moment. I watched as we went upstairs and she took off her jacket and sweater. She fixed her hair and I felt my eyes linger on her as she did.

I kept thinking about what Roman had told me and I just couldn't get it out of my head. I was nervous as hell and I just wanted to call him to ask for even more advice. I wanted to show him though that I could do this on my own.

Leah started walking around as she looked at the games and I quickly followed her. She grabbed my hand and pulled me near the staircase that was nearby that goes down to the exit.

"What's wrong?" She asked softly. "You're too quiet."

"I'm nervous." I admitted to her. "I know I shouldn't be because of how comfortable we are around each other. But I've never done this before. I've never been on a date with someone. You're different than a lot of the girls around here, Leah and I want to make sure that I'm able to give you what you want and need. But I also don't want to disappoint you."

Her eyes softened. "Why would you disappoint me?"

"Because I'm not perfect." I told her, honestly. "I've made mistakes, I'm not rich and I'm not even halfway to being halfway rich. There's a lot of things I can't afford and I don't know if I'll be able to give you everything, Leah but I want to try. It's never been easy for me to open up like this, but with you, it's easier than it's ever been. Your happiness means a lot to me and the way I feel about you...I've never felt for anyone else. I'm just nervous."

Leah pulled me to her until I was close enough to rest my hands on her waist as she rested against the wall. "Objects aren't all that important to me. What matters is that I have you right by my side like you have been since day one. So what if we can't afford everything under the sun for each other, Dean. As long as I got you, I'll be okay. I think it's cute though that you're nervous."

I began stuttering, unable to form any words and heard her burst out into laughter. She wrapped her arms around my neck and laughed a bit longer as she rested her head on my shoulder. It felt right having her in my arms as mine circled her waist.

"Wanna go take a few pictures at the picture booth?" She asked as her fingers drew patterns on my shirt.

"I'm not much of a picture kind of person." I told her.

Leah poked her head up slightly and she pouted. "Please?"

"Okay, we're gonna have to talk about that 'cause I won't be able to say no if you pout like that." I told her, making her giggle and kiss my cheek.

Holding her hand, our fingers intertwined and we walked to the photo booth. We walked in and closed the curtain as she sat on my lap with the chair only fitting one person. Leah and I started off with some silly pictures until I began to take in her scent. Looking up at her, her eyes met mine as her arms stayed around my neck, holding on to me.

We stayed just like that until we heard the loud noises of a crowd passing by. Seeing that we had reached the amount of pictures that we could take, we got out and collected the strip that was released into the small pocket on the side.

"We have some time left before the movie starts." I said quietly when I looked at my watch. I saw the picture that was taken last, showing Leah and I just staring into each other's eyes. Feeling her beginning to move, I stopped her with my hand.

Cupping her face, I leaned down and finally kissed those lips that I've been wanting to kiss for a while. Pulling back slightly, Leah's face grew warm but with a smile. We shared another kiss and forgot about where we were at the moment.

_**O.O **_

Pulling back for some air, Dean's warm breath was now near my ear as he placed soft kisses there.

"We should go get some nachos for the movie." I whispered to him. Dean just simply nodded before giving me another kiss. I couldn't get enough of it and happily remained in the kiss for a while longer.

_**A few hours later...**_

When we got back to Roman's house, Dean was careful to park his best friend's car carefully. He knew that Roman was going to flip the lid if something happened to his car and I didn't want to see Dean's cute face being punched in.

Walking into the house, Roman was in the living room with Jey and Jimmy, his cousins and Trinity. They were watching a movie and eating some pizza as they watched us walk in. They paused what they were seeing and turned their attention to us.

"So how was the big date?" Asked Jey.

"It was great. I had fun." I said and then looked at Dean as he nodded in agreement.

They all looked at us and blinked. "Okay, so what really happened?" Asked Jimmy, knowing that there was something else.

"We tried that photo booth and took some pictures." Dean replied. But they pressed for further details. "Hell, I kissed her! Happy?"

"It's about damn time." They said. "We were starting to wonder if it were to ever happen."

Taking our coats off, I told Trinity some of what happened tonight and she didn't press me for any details. I told her what I was comfortable with saying out loud at the moment.

"So are you two like a couple now?" She asked as we sat in the kitchen.

I shrugged as I thought about it. "I don't know, Dean hasn't asked me or said anything about it. But I would say yes if he asked."

Trinity smiled. "Out of all the years that I've known Dean, he's finally on his way to having a girlfriend. I don't know what spell you have on him, but it's working affectively."

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm gonna go take a shower. I'll be back down in a bit."

I went to the room that Roman said I could stay in if I were to spend the night and closed the door. Taking off my clothes, I grabbed a towel and my pajamas and went into the bathroom. Putting my hair up, I got into the shower that had a clear, glass door and shower heads from every direction. I decided to take my hair down instead and letting it get wet. Feeling the hot water run all over my body when I turned it on, I closed my eyes and enjoyed it.

I began to think about Dean's kiss again and it made me smile. Feeling his soft lips against mine put me in heaven and I wanted more of it. I liked how his kiss just put me at peace and how it was full of electricity. The kiss was soft but it was full of want and desire. I've been kissed before in the past, but never the way Dean kissed me. It was as if there was nowhere else he would rather be.

**A/N: Do you think Dean would have asked Leah out on a date if it wasn't for what Vanessa said to her?** **Do you think that this is a way of Leah's dad letting her know that everything is going to be okay and that he may be watching over his little girl after all? What do you think will happen with Dean and Leah, now that they've had their first official date? **


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you to Alexandria M, justkimmy, jessica619, DeeMarie426, and corbettluv for reviewing :) **

**Thank you as well to justkimmy and corbettluv for reviewing on the previous chapter!**

**A/N: Roman's POV will be added to this chapter. **

It was Monday and I set my sights on finding Vanessa. I'm not one to usually care about what others think, but when it involves me and Leah, that's when I'll care.

"Vanessa!" I exclaimed when I saw her doing something in her locker. "Why are you putting things into Leah's head?"

"Putting what into her head?" She asked when she looked up at me. "The fact that you've never been a one woman type of guy? I'm absolutely correct on that, Dean. You've never been in a relationship with anyone and now all of a sudden, you want one?"

"Why does that matter to anybody?" I asked her. "What goes on between Leah and I is of nobody's concern."

"Leah's my friend, Dean." She told me. "I've known you longer than she has."

I scoffed and shook my head as I looked around, beginning to pace back and forth. "I don't have to prove anything to anyone except for her and myself. But know that I can change and for the better. It just so happened to be because Leah and if you or anybody for that matter doesn't believe me, they can kiss my ass."

Walking away, I didn't care who saw that little spat between her and I. Vanessa didn't have a right to get into my business and it got the better of me for a moment there. Seeing Leah standing by her locker, she opened it a moment later, revealing a note that I had left for her before going to look for Vanessa.

Seeing her smile, I knew that she liked it. Walking up behind her, I hugged her feeling her jump a bit but relax when she realized who it was. Turning around in my arms, she smiled up at me.

"I like your little notes." Leah said. "And I really liked this weekend."

I gave her a full kiss and then placed kisses on her cheek. We spent the entire weekend together and we were inseperable. We weren't sure of what we were though since it was only two dates over the course of three days. It started out as me trying to prove something, but it then turned into just me asking her out because of my feelings for her and realizing that it may have been the push that I needed to finally ask her on a date.

"We should do that more often then." I mumbled against her lips as I gave her another kiss. She had just finished up with her second final for the semester and it was for her AP Physics class.

We talked in hushed tones as students began pouring out into the hallways from their classes. Vanessa made her way towards us and I almost groaned, knowing that she suddenly hated me.

_**O.O **_

"Hi, Vanessa." I said as she walked up to us. She looked at Dean and made a face at him before smiling at me.

"Did he get in your pants yet?" She asked.

I looked at her. "Don't start. I don't wanna hear it."

"Because you know that the negative things that are said about him are true." Vanessa replied.

"No, they're not!" I exclaimed. Dean growled and I knew that he was starting to get upset when he began to walk around in circles. "Why are you doing this?"

Vanessa scoffed. "Doing what? Telling you the truth is what I'm doing."

"The truth about what, Vanessa?" I asked her. "If you had an issue with Dean all this time, then why are you telling me this now instead of when you saw that you knew that him and I were friends?"

She said nothing as Dean stopped to listen to what she had to say. "Please enlighten me on why I'm suddenly the bad guy. As far as I know, I've never done or said anything bad to you or about you since the day we met. I've always been good to you and now, out of no where, we have a problem?"

I looked up at Dean and when I looked up into his eyes, he genuinely wanted to know the answers to what he was asking.

"I just don't think you're right together, Leah." Vanessa said. "He's never been in a relationship before, so how do you know that he'll be faithful?"

"Ask anybody around here." Said Dean when he turned to look at me. He walked backwards with his arms spread out and looking around, getting people's attention. "Go ask anybody that you want that knows me, right now and see what they tell you about me. Right now, without me going to any one of them and giving them a heads up. Go ahead. Yes, you may hear that I've never been in a relationship before. Everybody in this school who knows me, will say that about me. But you know that as well, Leah. They may tell you that they're not sure if I'm able to commit. Completely understandable for said reason."

I felt something growing inside of me as I heard him speak. There was something about the way he spoke and something about the sound of his voice that made him get into my heart a bit more than what he already was. It made my heart skip a beat.

"Show me why I'm such a bad guy!" He exclaimed as the late bell rang. "I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad for saying what they want about me. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But if you're gonna talk shit about me, then have a damn good reason for it. Not some bullshit excuse. Make me look bad, talk bad about me, you're entitled to do so. All I'm asking is that you have a valid reason for doing such thing."

Dean looked at me with that same look in his eyes that he had when he asked me out last week. I felt butterflies in my stomach with that look and couldn't help but try to hide the smile that wanted to form on my lips. Dean walked away, leaving me alone with Vanessa.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked her. "Did he do something wrong that I don't know about?"

Vanessa looked down and said nothing. I closed my locker, wanting to look for Dean. "I thought you'd be the one person here who would always be honest with me. You're not even telling me what's really going on with you right now and I need to understand what's going on because I don't."

Walking away, I began to look for Dean but to no avail. I asked a few people that knew him, asking if they saw him, only to be told by some that he had left. Looking for Roman, I was relieved when I finally found him as he quickly walked over to me.

"Did you see where Dean went?" I asked.

He looked at me as he raised his eyebrows. "I just saw him leaving the school. I told him not to, or at least to wait for you because I know that he may listen to you. But he just kept going. I was hoping that I could find you to tell you to see if you'd know where he could possibly go."

My heart sank when I heard what Roman had said. The guy I'm falling more and more in love with everyday, just walked out of the building and I have no idea where he's going or even if he's coming back. My heart was breaking all over again. Roman took me aside and pulled me into a hug when he realized that I truly may not have any idea as to where he may have gone.

_**O.O **_

"We're going to find him." I told her. At least I hoped that we did. Sometimes Dean could be unpredictable, and this may just be one of those moments.

I thought that he would at least try to stick around for Leah because of how easily she makes it seem to calm him down, but he didn't. Dean paused when I mentioned her name and kept walking after a few moments.

The rest of the school day went by without a word from Dean. He didn't show up to the rest of his classes and nobody's seen him since what had happened earlier in the day. Leah and I looked for him in as many places in the building as we could. We looked in his favorite hang out spots throughout the school, and even the lunchroom to see if he came back into the building, but to no avail.

"What places does he go to when he's with you?" I asked Leah as I waited for her to get her things out of her locker.

"We could try the library." She responded.

I looked at her confused. "You know you said the library, right?"

She smiled. "Dean goes because of me. He knows that I love going to the library and that I'm almost always there. We should also try the park, the Chinese restaurant that we always go to and the pizza shop."

We got into my car and began to drive around. I drove slow to see if we could see Dean walking around on our way to the places that Leah had mentioned that we could try. Looking over at Leah, I started thinking about the things that Dean says about her and saw how true they were.

She really was beautiful and had a big heart. Thinking about it, I could see why he's changed for the better. There was something about Leah that made him change and I thought about how she was like an angel. Maybe Leah is what Dean needs in his life and right now, he's not doing that great of a job to make sure that he keeps her.

When we got to the library, Leah went inside while I stayed in the car in case I saw him outside. She came back with no good news and we went on our way to the park. After going to all of the places that Leah had mentioned, we still couldn't find him anywhere.

I took her to my house so that she could have a place to stay instead of being outside with no where to go and in the cold and by herself. We didn't know when Dean would be back and I wasn't going to keep Leah out in the street.

_**O.O **_

I went back to school when I knew that there was nobody left except for some teachers that may have stayed behind doing some work. Getting my things from my locker, I saw the picture I had on the door of me and Leah. I had her in my arms and we were both happy.

I knew she wasn't in school because she would have waited for me outside or by my locker if I had not been around for a while that day. Thinking about what was said by Vanessa earlier in the day, I remembered how I reacted. It's not that I hate Vanessa, because I don't. I just want to know why she's trying to make me look like I'm the bad guy and as if I'm the idiot.

Wanting to be alone, but not wanting to be without Leah, I went on my way to Roman's first to see if she was there. He promised that he would make sure that she was okay if I wasn't around her for whatever reason.

_**...**_

Getting to his house, it was beginning to get dark and more cold than what it had been during the day. Knocking on his door, Roman answered and pulled me in when he grabbed me by my coat.

"Where the hell have you been all day, man?" He asked with his teeth clenched, in an effort to keep quiet. "We've been looking all over for you, Dean."

"I needed some space." I replied. "Needed some time to think."

I took off my coat as Roman started to walk around. "Think about what, Dean?"

Staying quiet, I thought while I had nothing to say. Looking around, I didn't see Leah anywhere down here.

"If you wanna go, that's fine." Roman continued. "But at least let Leah know where you're going. She's been going crazy looking for you, wondering if you're okay and now she's up there thinking about when she'll be able to see you again."

I just stood there, not answering to what was being said. "Dean,why are you acting like you don't care?"

"I do care!" I exclaimed.

"Then act like you do, Dean." He told me. "If this is about what Vanessa said, then forget about it. Everybody is entitled to their opinions, but if you keep caring about their's when it comes to you and maybe even Leah, then your relationship with her is over when it barely even begun."

Running my fingeres through my hair, I groaned. "Why is this so difficult?"

"What about this is difficult?" Roman asked.

"I'm scared of commitment." I replied quietly. "I've gotten this far with Leah, but I don't know anything about relationships. What am I going to do?"

He looked at me. "Take it one step at a time, Dean. You don't have to rush into it. Leah's been by your side the entire since she met you. I'm sure she'll understand that you want to go slow. This is where communication comes into play. You have to talk to Leah. Just don't leave her like that. Do you want her to hurt the way you did when she left? Leah's been by your side and has seen your weird little habits and your craziness and whatnot, and yet she still stands. Don't fuck it up with a girl like that, Dean."

I thought about what he was telling me. Roman had a point. "What about everybody else?"

"What about everybody else?" He asked. "You've never been one to care about what they think, Dean. Why are you starting now? You want to prove that you can commit to Leah and to a relationship in general, then go ahead. But you need to prove that to Leah, not the whole school. So focus on you and her before it causes you to lose her."

Going upstairs with my bags, I passed by the room that I always stayed in and noticed something on the bed. I went in to see what it was and saw that it was an envelope with writing on it.

_'To Dean, from Leah' _

Curious to know what it was, I opened it and saw that it was a birthday card. Opening the card, I smiled at Leah's neat handwriting.

_'I know your birthday was at the beginning of the month and I already told you 'Happy Birthday', but I just wanted to give you something anyways, even though you said it wasn't necessary.' _

I put the card back in the envelope and put it down. Looking for her, I saw her in the room across from mine, laying down in bed and staring up at the ceiling as she played with her hair. I knocked softly on the door and saw her look and sit up when she saw that it was me. 

"Dean, you're okay." She said as she came up to me for a hug. "Where have you been?"

I immediately wrapped her up in my arms and dug my face into the crook of her neck, taking in her scent. It felt as if I haven't seen her in days, even though it had only been a few hours, leaving me to hold on to her for as long as I could. Leah pulled her head back slightly to look up at me.

"You _are _okay, right?" She asked.

All I could do was nod. "I'm sorry for leaving. I just needed some time for myself. To cool off and to think."

She grabbed my hand and had me sit down next to her in bed. "Tomorrow's the last day of school. You don't have to worry about them until we have to go back next semester."

Leah knew I had something on my mind and was waiting for me to tell her. I kissed her cheek and rested my hand on her thigh.

"I'm not the kind of guy who cares about what others think." I told her. "You know that very well, as does all of my friends. But the reason that I care so much about what they say when it comes to relationships is because I want one with you. I want to fight back and show that I really am capable of being in one and being faithful and I don't want them to make you think that I'm not."

"No, I don't believe them." Leah said. "I wouldn't still be here if I did. I get to see you, the real you, every day that I'm with you. I get to see that Dean that makes me laugh, even when I don't want to. The Dean that makes me happy. You want me, then you want me. Why let what others say ruin us? I care about _you, _not people who don't take the time out of their schedule to see the real Dean."

_**O.O**_

Dean stood up and closed the door. Walking back to me, he stopped and looked into my eyes with his blue orbs. Leaning down, he kissed me gently at first before it became passionate. Feeling myself going back into the mattress, I pulled myself up to where my head was laying on the pillows.

He continued to kiss me when he fixed himself on me, placing his hands on my hips. I dug my fingers into his hair and gently pulled at it, making him place his lips on my neck. I bit my lips and closed my eyes, feeling my mouth being pulled into a smile. Feeling his mouth on my collarbone, I softly moaned when I felt his hands on my skin as my shirt began to ride up.

Dean pushed himself up and took off his shirt. I've seen him without a shirt on plenty of times but it wasn't until now that I realized how much I really liked it. His abs, the muscles in just every part of his body from the waist up and I couldn't help but touch. He leaned back down and crashed his lips against mine. I felt him shiver when my hands touched his bare skin once again as he nipped my bottom lip.

Someone suddenly knocked on the door and a deep voice made it's way into the room from the other side of the door.

"Guys, dinner's almost ready." Said Roman. "Can you help set up the table?"

Dean groaned against my neck as he gently nipped at the skin as his warm breath tickled it. Getting up, I suddenly missed the warmth of his body pressed against mine. Fixing my hair while he put on his shirt, I got myself together and sat at the edge of the bed.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I looked up at him. "Please don't leave me."

"I won't." He replied. "Don't leave _me._"

I shook my head and saw the vulnerability in his eyes. "I won't."

**A/N: Why would Vanessa all of a sudden say to Leah all of these things about Dean? Does Leah have a reason to worry anytime soon or should she stand her ground and give Dean a chance? Do you think Roman is right when he tells his best friend to stop worrying about what others think before it ruins what he has with Leah? Do you think Dean will ever fully commit to Leah or will it just remain as it is? **


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you to jessica619, ThatGirl54, Alexandria M, DeeMarie426 and justkimmy for reviewing :) **

Brushing my teeth, I looked back into the room and saw Leah sitting on the edge of the bed, watching television in her pajamas. It was almost a week into our Christmas break and we've gotten a lot better than what we were a few days ago. I couldn't help but think how lucky I must be to have somebody like her in my life. I don't know what I did right to have her, but I wasn't going to press my luck and risk losing her.

Once I was done, I turned off the light and closed the door before sitting next to her in just my basketball shorts and black wife beater. Leah laid her head on my shoulder and I kissed her head. Watching her play with my hand, I knew that she was thinking about something.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" I asked with my lips against her hair before she crawled to the rest of the bed and laid down.

Reaching out to me, I laid down next to her. "I was thinking that maybe after New Year's I could start working. The mall has a few stores that are hiring, so I was thinking about applying to some the next ime that we go. It may be for only minmum wage, but it's something that could help towards saving up some money."

"I was actually thinking the same thing." I told her as she laid her head on my chest and wrapped an arm around my waist. I did the same and felt comfort in laying like this with her.

We tried the whole sleeping in seperate bedrooms out of respect for Roman and his parents and so that we can each have some privacy, but we just couldn't. Leah and I would end up going into each other's rooms because we had grown comfortable with sleeping in the same room all the time before Roman allowed us to stay for as long as we needed. Roman had found us on one occasion sleeping in the same room and just ignored it as long as we kept the door open for his parents to not start complaining. Since they weren't home as often because of how much they worked, we closed the door when they weren't home.

"Maybe we can get our own place if we get enough money saved up before the school year's over." I added.

Leah looked up at me. "A place of our own?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm already 18 and you'll be 18 in February. If we're able to get jobs between now and then, we can see what we can do before we go to college."

Looking up at me, I saw that Leah had a sparkle in her eye. She climbed up on top of my and laid there on top of me.

"I thought you said that college may not be for you." Leah said.

Thinking for a moment, I placed my hands on her back as if keeping her where she was. "I thought the same thing but ever since meeting you, I have found inspiration and I decided to apply. That time period where we weren't talking, Roman submitted my application for me because he knew that without you here, I would never do it. I didn't take the SAT's when I was supposed to so I registered to take the one that's coming up in about three weeks. I applied to all of the same colleges that you did, so I'm hoping that I've made enough progress to get in to at least one of them."

Leah grinned as she took my face in her hands. "I'm proud of you, Dean. I'm positive that you'll do great on the SATs and that you'll get into college. What are you planning on taking when you do?"

"I was thinking about taking Business since I want to have my own wrestling school or something." I replied. "Maybe Business courses can help me with that side of having a school or gym."

Looking into Leah's blue eyes, I just fell deeper. Tracing her lips with my thumb, I looked back up into her eyes and nudged her nose with mine. A wave of calmness washed over me as I hooked her hair behind her ears and took her face in my hands. Damn, I was falling more in love with this girl with each day that passes and I haven't even asked her to be my girlfriend yet. She dug her hands in my hair and kissed me. I couldn't resist and applied pressure to hers as mine began to move. I was willing to do anything for her and I wanted her more than anything. Pulling back from her lips, I hooked her hair behind her ear and looked into her eyes again.

"Tomorrow we can go check to see what we can apply for." I told her. "Maybe we can spend the whole day together, too. We'll make it a date."

She nodded and smiled. "I'd like that."

I gave her a full kiss and smiled against her lips before pulling back again. Leah dug her face into my neck and placed a hand on my chest. She looked up a few minutes later and kissed my chin.

"Did you mean what you said about moving in together?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "I like this whole living with you thing."

Leah smiled and pecked my lips before fixing herself so that she had her head on my chest again when she cuddled up next to me. We continued to watch television until Roman came in an hour later.

"Leah's already sleeping." He said when he walked in. I kind of noticed with how quiet she had gotten and I didn't mind. "I'm going to lunch tomorrow with Chris. Wanna come?"

"I'm gonna go to the mall with to see if we could apply for some jobs." I told him as I began to play with Leah's hair. "And I wanna spend the day with her."

Roman smiled. "If you don't see me tomorrow for lunch, you know why. Did you get her something for tomorrow? It's Christmas Eve tonight."

"I got a little something but it's not much." I replied. "I'll let you know tomorrow."

He nodded. "I'll see you in the morning. You two can't stay out of each other's rooms can you?"

I chuckled. "I can't help it. I like being in the same room with her."

"Night." Roman said with a smile on his face as he chuckled softly.

"Goodnight." I replied as he left. Kissing Leah's head, I watched her sleep after I turned the t.v. off until I felt my eyes beginning to drift.

_**The next day...**_

_**O.O **_

I woke up with Dean's arm around my waist. Snuggling a little closer to him, I stayed like that a while longer before getting up and heading to the bathroom. I'm proud of Dean for everything that he's accomplished. A guy who said that he didn't think that college was for him, applied and is taking the SATs in a few weeks.

I would have loved him even if he didn't go to college, but the fact that he's trying makes me love him even more. There were moments last night where I thought that it would spill out of my lips, but I held it in. I didn't want to scare him off without even knowing what we were first.

After my shower, I saw Dean beginning to wake up. Putting my towel away, I looked out the window and saw that it was cloudy and felt the cold winter air against the window. Seeing that Dean was still in bed, I slightly jumped in bed and heard him groan.

"Wake up, sleepy head." I said in a sweet voice as I straddled him. Dean opened his eyes and smiled when he saw me but squinted from the light that was coming into the room from the windows.

"You're lucky that I like the way you wake me up." He said quietly. "Just without the jumping into bed part."

I giggled and kissed his nose. "We need to get to go to the mall to look for some jobs. Do you want me to print some resumes for you?"

He nodded with a sleepy smile that showed his dimples. "Let me take a shower."

_**...**_

Dean came downstairs after about half an hour and came into the kitchen where I was eating some cereal with a laptop in front of me. Bending down, he gave me a soft kiss on the lips before placing one on my cheek. It gave me butterflies when he did and drove me crazy. I've never had this kind of effect on me before and it's a bit scary for me. Exciting at the same time, but scary.

I smiled as he sat down next to me. His hair was wet from his shower and he was just in his basketball shorts. I bit my lip as my heart skipped a beat. Dean was the only guy since my dad to treat me the way that he does and to take care of me the way that he does.

Dean caught me looking at him, and I instantly felt my cheeks flush. I got up to clean my plate and tried to hide the stupid smile on my face. I felt Dean's arms sname ar oundmy waist when he walked up to me. I couldn't help but lean into him and take in his fresh scent.

"So are we making this a date today?" He asked me in my ear. I bit my lip and nodded as I smiled. After his attempt to tickly me, I was able to get out of his grasp after a fit of laughter.

His lips captured mine as he kept my face in his hands. I melted into the kiss and enjoyed it until we both pulled back. "We should start getting ready to go. Roman's not going to be with us for lunch and we may have to end up walking somewhere."

About 45 minutes later, we met in the hallway and made our way downstairs to put on our coats. Making sure we had everything we needed, Dean followed me out the door and locked it behind him. Grabbing my gloved hand, we intertwined our fingers together and made our way to the mall. It was going to be almost a thirty minute walk and in this winter, it wasn't going to be as easy as it may have sounded.

When we finally got to the mall, we sighed in relief when we felt the warmth of the heat inside the four story building. I opened up my jacket to not get overwhelmed with how warm it was in here and then took off my hat and scarf, fixing my hair. Dean grabbed my hand again as we made our way throughout the mall looking for stores that may have been hiring.

I spotted Vanessa and squeezed Dean's hand when I noticed that her gaze fell upon us. Clearing my throat loud enough for him to hear, he got what I was trying to tell him and saw Vanessa walking towards us.

"How's your Christmas going?" She asked us.

"It's going good." I replied. "How's yours?"

Vanessa smiled but it slightly faded when she saw our hands joined. "It's been going good. Just hanging out with family and friends and not wanting to go back to school."

"I think everybody at some point, doesn't want to go to school." Said Dean. "I've had that moment plenty of times."

"It's like you just need a break." Vanessa said a little too comfortably. When Dean didn't respond to keep the conversation going, she cleared her throat. "So I see you two are a couple now."

Dean and I both looked at each other and saw what she meant when we saw that we were still holding hands. I looked at him, not knowing what to say but Dean gave me a smile instead.

"Yeah, we are." He said as he looked at me with a smile still on his face. "I'm making a commitment to her. I realized that I can't be without her and I want to be that one guy that she can call hers. No matter what."

My heart fluttered and soared when I heard those words come out of his mouth. I wanted Dean to make me his, I just wasn't expecting it to be now and it had put a big smile on my face.

Vanessa's face dropped when I looked back at her. "Does anybody have a problem with me being his girlfriend or do they have more shit to say about him?"

She shook her head. "No, I think it's fine. Just don't prove anyone wrong. Stand by his side if you want."

"Don't worry about what I do." Dean told her. "Enjoy the rest of your Christmas."

_**O.O **_

Leah was in the shower, about an hour after got back home and I decided to put her present in the middle of her bed. With the television on in the living room, I heard a news break saying that there was a storm coming our way adding up to three feet or more to the few inches that we already got today. Luckily, we got a few extra things to take back with us in case we weren't able to go back out.

Leah hadn't asked about what I told Vanessa earlier today at the mall about us being a couple but I know that she will eventually. I felt complete with Leah by my side and now that I've gotten to know her and feel the way that I do about her, I don't want to go back to being without her in my life.

I heard the shower stop running and knew that she was about to come out. I went back downstairs and saw Roman coming in through the door with bags in his hands. Helping him out after greeting him, I saw that he had bought some extra water bottles, batteries and flashlights along with some food.

"The news mentioned this morning that there was a storm coming but that it wouldn't be here until later on tonight." He said, coming into the kitchen. "But it's starting to snow a lot more than it was earlier in the day. Did you and Leah get to find any jobs?"

"We applied to some of the stores at the mall." I replied as I helped him put some of the things away. "We saw Vanessa there and she saw that we were holding hands."

"Did she say something about it?" Roman asked. "Lately she seems to have quite a bit to say about you."

I thought for a moment and shrugged. "Vanessa just asked if we were a couple now and I said yes without asking Leah if she wanted it."

"Dude, I'm sure Leah wants to be." Roman said. "Leah's not the kind of girl to do the whole friends with benefits thing so I'm sure she would have stopped it if she thought it was just that."

I sighed and ruffled my hair a bit and heard her coming down a few minutes later. Leah ran into my arms and catching her, I picked her up and let her wrap her legs around me.

"I love it." Leah said as she gave me a big grin. She showed me her wrist, indicating that she was talking about the bracelet that I had figured out how to make after finding a few things to make it. She was in her tank top and pajama pants with her hair in a long braid. Leah smelled like lavender and wouldn't let go of me.

I chuckled and kept her in my arms. The bracelet was red which is one of her favorite colors and I was able to find a silver platelet and I was able to get Leah's name imprinted on it. I found a friend who did it for free, saving me from a lot of money being spent. "Really? I didn't know what else to get you so I decided to make that for you. Merry Christmas, Leah."

We shared a kiss until we heard Roman clear his throat. We had completely forgotten that he was still in the kitchen. Leah got down and stood up straight before going to hug Roman.

"His present is better than mine." Leah said to Roman. "I just got this book and put a lot of pictures of me and him in it as well as us with some of our friends. I didn't have enough pictures though so there's still a few pages that are empty."

"Hey, I like what you got me." I said to her, pulling Leah into my arms. "You know I'm not much of a picture person and you somehow manage to get me to take pictures. And we'll fill up the rest of the book little by little."

We talked for a few more minutes until Roman went upstairs to his room. I stayed in the kitchen with Leah and held her hands.

"Did you mean it what you said to Vanessa today at the mall?" She asked softly.

I nodded. "Every word of it. I know people think that I'll never make a commitment and that I'll never do the whole relationship thing, but I'm gonng show you that I can. I'm ready and willing to do this, Leah and I want it to be with you. I like what we have and I want it to keep going. To hell with what they think and say. It's going to ruin us if I continue to care about what they say and think and I can't lose you. I almost lost you once and I couldn't take it. Almost went all lunatic on some people at times. So with that being said...would you be my girlfriend? Officially?"

Leah smiled sweetly and nodded. "I'd love to be your girlfriend."

"Love, huh?" I asked with a smile on my face. Leah grinned and scrunched her nose. Taking her in my arms, I gave her a full kiss. She leaned into me and I deepened the kiss a little more before pulling back. "I promise I'll be good to you and I promise to be the best guy you've ever had."

"I know." Leah whispered against my lips. "I promise to be good to you too and I promise to make you happy."

"You already make me happy." I told her before kissing her again. Feeling her wrap her arms around my neck, mine went around her waist and kept her close to me.

**A/N: What do you think about Dean and Leah officially becoming a couple? What did you think of Vanessa's reaction to when she saw them holding hands in the mall? Can she be trusted by Leah like she thought she could or should Leah be worried about the girl she thinks is her friend? And Dean wanting to maybe get a place with Leah when they have enough money saved up? What about those little moments between Leah and Dean? **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to jessica619, 'Guest', corbettluv, Alexandria M, DeeMarie426, justkimmy for reviewing :) **

It's February and things have been going pretty well. Things are still a bit tough every now and then, but Dean and I have been able to get through it. It's been over a month since Dean asked me to be his girlfriend and I couldn't be any more happier when it comes to Dean and I. He had been the best boyfriend to me that I could ever ask for. He treated me like a princess and he treated me right. We had our arguments here and there, but we also let each other know how much we cared about each other.

With him, all I felt was happiness and a feeling that I just couldn't escape. One that I didn't want to. It felt magical with Dean.

"Dean, stop!" I squealed as he continued to tickle me in bed. Right in the middle of fixing it, he came out of the bathroom after finishing his shower and felt the need to throw me into a fit of laughter as I tried to squirm out of his grasp. It was a Saturday and with both of us having the weekends off, we spent it like any other couple would as well as hanging out with our friends.

I couldn't stop laughing as he got me back into bed and stopped tickling me after a few more minutes. I played with Dean's hair as he continued to tower over me. Leaning down, he gave me a sweet kiss that lingered for a while.

"Your birthday's coming up." He whispered. "What would you like?"

"I don't want anything." I told him honestly. "I just want you and my friends."

Dean looked at me. "What if I gave you something for Valentine's Day?"

I smiled. "My birthday's on Valentine's Day though."

He smiled and chuckled. "Exactly."

Giggling, I shook my head. "I just want you and my friends. That's it, I'm sure of it."

"Okay." Dean said softly as he gave me another kiss. "I just want my girlfriend to be happy on her birthday."

"I'm sure I will be." I told him. I gave him a big kiss and smiled against his lips when he did the same. "Help me fix the bed so we can get some breakfast."

After about five minutes, we made our way to the kitchen where Roman was after just getting back from the gym. We decided to make some pancakes and joked around with Roman before we went upstairs to take a shower before eating.

"How much do we have saved up so far?" Dean asked. With me being so good with numbers, he let me count all of our money to see what we had saved up. He fell asleep last night before I finished, so I wrote it down in case I forgot.

"$275 with some change." I replied as I cleaned three plates. "That overtime that we've been doing has helped a bit."

Dean and I had been lucky enough to get some extra hours at our jobs to help along with saving up some money but it wasn't easy. What helped was that we didn't have many classes left to take this semester, so it gave us enough time outside of school to work full time. I only had one class while Dean had two so we've tried to pick up on some extra hours.

He looked like he had something on his mind, but said nothing about it as he finished up with the pancakes. "It's better than not having anything saved up."

_**O.O **_

I walked to my English class and saw Leah walking towards me, looking at something in her notebook. I smiled at the sight of her and caught her attention before she bumped into me. Leah gave me her sweet smile and a peck before we grabbed each other's hands.

"You gotta work today?" Leah asked as we made our way through the hallways.

"Yeah, I like working at that store sometimes." I replied. I worked at a shoe store at the mall and it was boring as hell sometimes. There were times where not a lot of people would come in but it still made enough buisness to stay alive in a mall filled with hundreds of other stores. It also payed enough to save up some money. "Can't I walk you to work today?"

She looked at me and smiled when she saw me pout. "I thought you wanted to talk to me about _my _pouting."

"Yeah because I can't say no to you when you pout." I replied. Leah giggled and shook her head.

"Go to class." She told me softly when we stopped a few feet from the door. "You'll see me later."

I press her against the wall and place my lips softly on hers. "So that's a 'stay in class' thing?"

Leah's blue eyes softly looked up at mine. "I promised you could this Friday. So you have to keep your end of the bargain and go to class everyday until then."

I was about to protest about going to class, but I knew she was right. Though me going to college would never change our relationship, I wanted to go for me. Leah inspiring me to go above and beyond what I thought I was ever capable of doing and accomplishing is what's making me continue. With only a few months left to the school year, I was going to show myself that I could really do it. Leah taught me to believe in myself.

"Okay." I responded. There was happiness in her eyes as she looked up at me and there was also something else. I knew that this time of the year was difficult for her, but she still managed to put a smile on her face everyday and make me happy. Giving her a kiss, we heard a few people in the background howling at it. I gave them a death glare, causing them to leave. Turning my attention back to Leah, she had rested her arms on my shoulder and curling my hair around her finger.

"I'll see you later." She told me softly.

I nodded. "I'll see you later and be careful going to work."

"I will." She responded before sharing another kiss. Leah had to walk 35 minutes to the mall in what would be about a 5 to 10 minute drive in the cold and I didn't always feel comfortable with her going by herself. I couldn't relax myself until I saw her later in the day, right before heading to the store that I worked in.

Walking into the room, I took my usual seat next to Roman and greeted him. Looking up towards the door, Leah gave me a big smile and waved before leaving. My heart melted with every smile that she gave me.

"What are we gonna do for Leah's birthday?" Asked Roman. "It's on Friday, right?"

"Yeah, but she said she didn't want anything." I replied. "All Leah wants is to be with me, you and some of her other friends."

Roman thought for a moment. Ever since Leah's father died when she was little, she never liked to celebrate her birthday. It only reminded her of what had happened and the tragedy of losing the one person that she felt ever cared about her until now.

"I want to do something for Leah." I admitted to Roman. "Even if it's just a Valentine's Day thing, but even that she doesn't want. Leah never asks for anything."

"Well, Leah's had a lifestyle in where she had to work her whole life for everything that she wanted because nobody ever gave it to her." Roman replied. "Maybe she's not used to asking for anything because she just automatically tries to work for it."

Thinking for a moment, I thought of something. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Afterschool?" He asked.

"No, I was thinking about looking for an apartment for us but I would have to do it during school. I can't afford to miss work." I responded.

Roman looked at me quickly. "Are you sure?"

"It's either that, or we try to find something for her to do on Saturday to keep her occupied while you and I go look at apartments." I replied.

"We're keeping this whole apartment thing a secret from her, aren't we?" He asked.

I chuckled. "Absolutely. She will not know that I'm going to surprise her with a place of our own."

Roman let out a chuckle of his own as he shook his head. "Leah has you wrapped around her finger."

"She does not." I replied quickly. Then thinking about it, I realized that my best friend may be right on that. "Just...shut up."

He laughed and jokingly moved his chair over to avoid me hitting him before moving his chair back.

_**The next day...**_

Last night, Roman and I looked at some apartments that were in the area that Leah and I may have been able to afford. We called a few places and were able to set up an appointment for today for two places.

"How are we going to do this?" Asked Roman. "Leah walks with you to English everyday."

Thinking, I looked around and saw Leah still at her locker, getting her things as I stood nearby with Roman. "We both can't go into class because Ms. McMahon isn't going to let us out at the same time. She may not even let us out until one of us goes back in."

"You know how Ms. McMahon sometimes doesn't come in until a few seconds before the late bell?" Asked Roman.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

He looked at me. "What if you left before she came in? You walk into class, making Leah think that you'll stay and you'll walk back out if she's not there and you're sure that Leah isn't around to see you walk out of the room. I'll go get my things and get the car ready when I see you go in so that when you come out, you get in the car and we go on our way. The apartments we're going to see is in the opposite direction. We don't have to worry about Leah seeing my car."

"Somebody's going to rat on me, Roman." I told him quietly.

"And Leah won't do anything to you, Dean." He replied. "Besides, I told you to make the appointment for tomorrow to give us a chance to come up with how to get out of here since you're so concerned about Leah seeing you leave."

"I'm not concerned about her seeing me leave." I told him almost to loud.

"What the hell is the problem, then?" Roman asked. "Who cares if they rat you out. The same shit's happened to me too. We'll get over it. This was your idea and I'm trying to help you out here. Do you want to do this or not?"

Leah walked up to us and gave us both a hug. "It's starting to snow a little so I'm going to start heading out now before it picks up."

"I'll go pick you two up from work later." Suggested Roman.

"Thanks." She said with a smile.

Seeing her tip-toe, I met her half way for a kiss. "I'll see you later, baby."

Leah nodded and smiled before turning around to leave. "Guess we don't have to worry about going to class today. Thank goodness for Mother Nature."

We went over to our lockers and got our things, meeting up by the front doors of the school. Hearing a voice coming from behind, we turned around to see Vanessa. Her and I haven't spoken since the whole thing started where she was suddenly against me.

"What do you want now, Vanessa?" I asked her. "Roman and I have somewhere to go."

"And it's not with Leah because I saw her leave a few minutes ago." She replied.

Roman and I looked at each other. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Doesn't she want you to go to class everyday?" She asked. "And not cut?"

"Again, what does that have to do with anything?" I asked her. Seeing as she took a while to respond, I sighed. "We have somewhere to go. If you're done being anti-Dean, I'm gonna leave now. Then again, I'd leave even if you still were."

Vanessa made a face. "What does she see in you?"

"Stop making it seem like I don't deserve her." I told Vanessa. "Leah obviously sees something in me that you don't. Enjoy the rest of your day."

We walked out the door without paying mind to what she had said as we left. Getting in Roman's car, I took out the address to the apartments and gave them to Roman as he began to drive. When we got to the place, we got out and I looked around. It seemed nice and quiet and wasn't bad looking. It had a pool in the center of the whole complex that was closed off because of winter.

Going into the main building, we saw a woman sitting at the front desk hanging up the phone as we walked in. The place had beige carpet and a piano in a seperate room that was connected to it.

"How can I help you two gentlemen?" Asked the woman. Her name tag said Samantha and she was blonde with blue eyes.

"We have an appointment today to see some apartments." I told her.

"Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns?" Asked a guy as he walked out form the back. "That would be with me."

He was a tall guy but lean and a bit on the thin side. He had short, black hair and grey eyes. With a grey suit, he walked over to us and shook our hands. "It's nice to you two. My name is Derek Ross and I'll be showing you around today. What kind of apartments are you two looking for?"

"It's for him and his girlfriend, but I just came along to help." Roman replied.

"Do you still have one bedroom apartments available?" I asked.

He nodded. "Of course. Let's go check them out now."

They walked outside of the main building and walked a few feets before getting into the next one. It had beige carpet as well with one large bedroom that was next to the bathroom. It was bigger than the kitchen I had when I lived with my mom. It had a dining room connected right outside of the kitchen and a patio. The living room was bigger than what mine was.

"How much is the rent?" Asked Roman as I continued to look around.

"It depends on the floor plan for the apartment." Mr. Ross answered. "This one specifically though will be $665 a month."

I turned around and looked at them. "$665 a month?"

He nodded. "That's why when people apply for an apartment in this facility, we ask for the last four pay stubs. We want to see that everybody that applies for an apartment will be able to afford it. It includes heat. If it didn't, if would've been a bit lower."

"Is that the lowest rent that you have for a one bedroom apartment?" I asked.

"Yes, it is." Mr. Ross replied. "For our one bedroom, the highest is $825 a month."

Roman looked over at me as I ran through my thoughts. "How much do you have saved up?"

"Leah and I saved up $275 with some change. If you add the $150 that I saved up, its only about $425 with some change. I don't know how much Leah has saved up on her own. I'm not going to take that money we have saved up without telling Leah. She counts that money every few days, she'll notice. Taking it period isn't an option. Even if I was to tell her that I was going to use some of it, she's going to ask why."

Seeing that Mr. Ross was paying attention to something on his phone, we stepped aside and spoke in lower tones. "We'll go the other place and see how much their rent is. It's okay if you don't get this one. There's always other places that we can look."

I groaned. "I don't want to have my girlfriend live in a trailer. I want her to have a nice place. Leah asks for nothing but deserves everything."

"You're not going to live in a trailer park." Said Roman. "I'm not going to let my best friend do that."

_**...**_

I was falling asleep on the couch when I felt a soft kiss on my cheek. I opened my eyes slowly and saw that it was Leah as she stood back up, still thinking that I was sleeping. I grabbed her hand and fixed myself on my back and got her to straddle me. She leaned forward and rested her head on my chest.

"You okay?" Leah asked softly when I wrapped my arms around her.

"Yeah, I just have a headache." I told her. Taking in her scent, I played with her hair and felt her tracing patterns on my chest with her fingers.

The apartments that Roman and I looked for today were good, but the rent for both places were more than what I had saved up and with having other bills to pay, I didn't know how we would be able to afford it with how much it's taken us to save up what we have. I didn't know how I was going to do it from a financial standpoint. I wanted Leah to have everything that she could possibly have. She deserved it.

Having her in my arms made me happy and I was seriously beginning to think about a long term with this girl. That's something that I never thought I would ever say, but she has me thinking it like it's something that I've always wanted my entire life.

"Dinner's almost ready." She said softly. "You want to eat something?"

"Yeah, but can I have a kiss first?" I asked.

Leah smiled and gave me a kiss. I gave her another one when she tried to pull back and nudged her nose with mine.

**A/N: Do you think Leah has Dean wrapped around her fingerlike Roman says? What will Dean do for Leah on her birthday, especially with it being on Valentine's Day? What do you think about him wanting to surprise her with a place of their own even though they've both talked about moving in together? **


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you to jessica619, DeeMarie426, Alexandria M for reviewing :) **

**A/N: This chapter has a bit of Dean's pov, but it's writting mainly in Leah's. *Contains sexual content* **

"Happy Birthday, beautiful." Said Dean as I walked out of the room after fixing up the bed, causing butterflies in my stomach when I heard his nickname for me. I smiled as he gave me the cutest grin he's ever given me. I wrapped my arms around his neck when he took me into his arms and gave me a sweet and lingering kiss.

"Thank you." I told him as we shared another kiss. Looking into his eyes, I felt weak in the knees and was glad to know that Dean was still holding me.

He grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen where the table was set and breakfast already on the table. It was pancakes with scrambled eggs and biscuits with orange juice. Roman was there with a smile on his face when I walked in.

"Happy birthday, Leah." He said giving me a hug.

I couldn't wipe the huge smile on my face, taking it all in. "You guys did this for me?"

They nodded before Roman spoke. "We know that you said that you didn't want anything for your birthday, but we wanted to do something nice anyways."

We sat down to eat breakfast and couldn't stop talking and joking around, though I noticed that Dean wouldn't get off the phone that he had just gotten. I had gotten one as well, and though it wasn't as luxurious as everybody else's phones, it was still a way for us to communicate with each other as well as our friends when we weren't with them.

He put his phone away, keeping me from saying anything to him about it and I went to clean my plate. We got our things about 15 minutes later and went out to Roman's black Tahoe on our way to school. Making our way towards the front doors, I held on to Dean's arm and hand as if trying to keep myself warm. Dean handed me his phone and I looked up at him.

"You could read my texts." Was what he simply said. "I know you noticed that I was on the phone a lot earlier this morning. You can read my texts, I don't have anything to hide."

Kissing his cheek, I handed him back his phone without looking through it. "I trust you enough to know that you're not doing something wrong."

Dean smiled at me and took his phone back. When we got into the school, I noticed something near my locker when some of the people passing by stopped to see. It wasn't until I got there that I saw why. There was a small pink bag there with red and pink balloons tied to the strings of the bag to keep it down.

Looking up and around, Dean smiled at me. "You did this?"

He nodded. "I know you said you didn't want anything, but I had to do something for you. I couldn't let you spend your birthday without getting something. To show that I care."

My heart skipped a beat as butterflies invaded my stomach again. Opening my locker to put my coat away, I opened the bag and looked through it. I took out a card and grinned at Dean's attempt at drawing on the envelope. I opened up the card after taking it out of the envelope and opened it to read what was inside. On the blank side of the card, it read:

_'Happy birthday and Happy Valentine's Day to the most amazing girl that I've ever met. Thank you for coming into my life. -Dean' _

Standing up, I took his face in my hands and kissed him. Feeling his arms snake around me, I wrapped mine around his neck and dug my hands into his hair as the kiss became passionate. Remembering where we were, I forced myself to pull away from the happiness I was in as his lips were pressed against mine.

"There's more to the day, you know." Dean whispered against my lips as his hands rested on my waist. "Don't say no or give me that pout of yours to try to get out of it because today's the one day that it's not going to work. I'm going to make sure that today is one of the best days that you'll ever have."

Giving him a sweet smile, I gave him another kiss forgetting about having to get to class when the bell rang. Dean and I both grabbed our things and he grabbed my hand to walk me to class. Getting there, I pressed my back against the wall as leaned his tall frame down for a kiss. I sighed into the kiss, feeling how different it was today. It was a soft kiss, but it was filled with longing and as if there was nothing else that Dean wanted, causing a feeling inside of me.

"Dean.." I whimpered softly against his lips, not wanting him to stop but knowing that we had to.

He groaned and hesitantly pulled back. "I know. I'll see you after class and I'll walk you to work. But tonight, it'll just be you and me."

I smiled. "Yeah? What are we going to do?"

"That's for me to know." He replied. "You'll see when it happens."

Giving me a short kiss, he gave me his phone again. I looked up at him confused.

"Look through my texts." Dean says. "I know you trust me, but I want to completely make sure that you know that I'm not doing anything bad."

I took his phone and went to his texts when I got into his phone. Looking through it, I saw the his texts to Roman and a few of his friends. The messages were about my presents and what to do for my birthday. The messages to Roman were about much more than that though. It had pictures of apartments and information on them.

"You've been looking at apartments?" I asked him when I looked back up and into his blue eyes.

"I've just physically looked at a few apartments at two different places." He replied. "On Tuesday, I didn't go to English because I had made an appointment to those said places to see the apartments. I wanted to keep it a surprise but I thought that since you already know that we'll be moving in together, you should be part of it."

Giving him a sweet smile, I placed my hand on the back of his neck, I pulled him down and gave him a kiss. It didn't take long for it to deepen and for us to force ourselves to pull away from each other's lips.

"You're lucky I like the reason why you didn't go to class that day." I told him jokingly, with a smile.

Dean chuckled and brushed his lips against mine. "If I keep kissing you, I'm not going to stop."

"Maybe later, we can finish." I whispered in his ear.

I felt him grip my sweater and kiss my jaw. "Go before I keep you from going to class."

Giggling, I kissed his nose and went to class.

_**O.O**_

After class, I quickly walked out of my math class and made a beeline to Leah's English class. Luckily we didn't have the same teacher, so I was able to get away with not going to Ms. McMahon's class today.

Talking to one of her friends, Leah came out of class and walked up to me after saying one last thing to her friend. I pecked her lips and held her hand as we walked through the hallways.

"I'm not doing overtime today." Said Leah as we walked out of the school. "And I'm not going to ask for it. It's my birthday, I wanna relax today."

"What do you think about apartments?" I asked her as we walked to the mall. "I mean, do you have a price range in mind?"

Leah thought for a bit. "Well, I have $200 saved up. With that $275.48, it's $475.40. Do you have anything else saved up?"

"As of yesterday, I have $195.55. So all together, it makes..." I started off saying, trying to do the math.

"$670.95." Said Leah. I looked over at her and blinked a few times. "I like working with numbers."

_**...**_

_**O.O**_

Getting ready to clock out for the day, I just wanted to go home and be with Dean. Today had been a pretty good day. It's the most positive attention that I've ever gotten in my whole life. The majority of all of that attention came from Dean who just kept making me smile and laugh. Everything he did today for me just gave me butterflies and made my heart skip a beat every time.

I felt myself blush when I walked into work with balloons attached to my birthday bag that held my birthday card and a small perfume that Dean had added in there before I walked in. Everyone stared and some smiled as they said 'Happy birthday' to me. As I walked out of the store with all of my belongings in hand, I saw someone who looked familiar to me. The person that I thought I wouldn't see ever again, or at least for a very long time.

"Leah?" He said as he walked up to me. I turned around on my heels and walked in the opposite direction. I felt a strong grip on my arm, making me turn around. "I knew it was you. How could anyone mistake those eyes?"

John still looked the same way that he did as the day that I left. His attitude and personality haven't seem to change either. "What do you want, John?"

He looked at me up and down as he stepped back. "You look even better than what you did the last time I saw you, Leah. A nice chest, and thick legs. A nice rear. You've grown nicely and I see that it's your birthday. Now that you're finally 18, there's no need for me to worry about you going to the police, right? Did you think I'd forget how old you were going to be?"

"Just stay away from me." I spat out. "Go back to my mom."

"I never left her, darlin'." He replied in that Southern drawl of his. "I just want us to get to know each other again and what better way to do that than in the bedroom?"

I scoffed as I looked at him in disgust. "I'm not going to be somebody that you use for sex just because you want something tight to get into every night so that you can get off. You have my mom to go to for sex."

"True, but I really want what I think about every night." John said with a smirk on his face as he continued to look at me. "You may not realize it now, Darlin', but you'll see me again and the next time we meet, we'll finish it somewhere more private."

"I got kicked out because of you." I told him, sharply. "Why do you want anything more to do with me?"

"It's all pleasure, darlin'." He simply replied.

Without saying another word or looking anywhere else, I walked and walked until I found Dean at the foodcourt, where we usually met. I quickly put my things down at the table he was sitting at and wrapped my arms around his midsection, hiding my face in his neck as I began to feel comfort with his arms around me.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He asked in my ear with a concerned tone.

"Dean, I saw him." I whimpered, tightening my hold on him. "He's here."

He kissed my temple and continued to hold me. "Saw who, Leah?"

"John...he's my mom's husband." I responded as I felt tears beginning to stream down my face. "He's the reason why I was kicked out."

I felt Dean tense up when he heard my response, making me pull back to look up at me. His eyes softened up when he saw me crying and he pulled me back into his arms. "Did he say something to you?"

"He said that now since I'm 18, he doesn't have to worry about me going to the police." I told him, sniffling and trying to hold back more tears. "He still just wants to use me for sex."

"Okay, no." He said a bit roughly. "Where is he?"

Dean pulled back and balled up his fists. "No! Things will only get worse if you do something to him."

"Leah, I'm your boyfriend!" Dean exclaimed. "I'm not letting a guy mess with you and stand by and do nothing."

Taking in a deep breath, I stood in front of him and held on to his fists. "Then let it not be today. Not today, Dean. Please."

His eyes pleaded with me while I tried to get him to get calm enough to agree. When he finally did, we went home and he wouldn't let me out of his sight. Getting to Roman's house, I went upstairs to take a shower. Washing my hair, I let the hot water run all over my body, in an effort to get relaxed.

Seeing John again just made think about how my mom chose him over his own daughter. It made me remember how she didn't even blink an eye as she watched me pack my things, knowing that I would be gone the next day and how she didn't even come after me to stop me from leaving.

Having all of those bad memories come back to me, made me upset and I tried to put it aside when I thought about what could happen tonight with Dean. Roman had a date with a girl that he's liked for a while, so we had the house to ourselves until he came back. Getting out of the shower, I heard the quietness fill the house instead of the usual talking and laughing that Dean and I always do when we're in the house.

When I got dressed, I let my hair out to let it air dry and went downstairs. Looking around, the lights were still on but they were dimmed a bit. The amazing aroma of food was intoxicating and made my mouth water.

"Dean?" I asked loud enough for him to hear. Not hearing anything, I continued to look around as I saw that the table was set up as I got closer to the dining room. Dean walked up to the entrance of the kitchen and leaned against the wall in a black button up shirt and blue jeans. He gave me that smile of his, flashing his dimples and it drove me crazy. "You look so handsome."

I ran into his arms and jumped into them as he held me tightly. Dean let out a chuckle as I laughed and gave him a kiss. "I do try to clean up nicely for my girl."

I grinned and pecked his lips. "What's for dinner?"

He put me down and held my hand to show me the food that he had put on the table. It was alfredo with chicken, rice and beans. I knew that he could cook, but I didn't know that he cooked this good.

"If it tastes horrible, we could just order take out or something." Dean said as he pulled out my chair for me.

"I think it'll taste good." I replied. After he sat down, we both filled our plates and I took a bite. "I didn't know you could cook like this. It's really good."

Dean gave me the cutest smile ever as he began to eat his food. "When I was little and my mom started using drugs and alcohol, it was just me and my sister on our own, until she left. My sister would teach me how to do little things that she knew I'd be able to do in case she wasn't home and I needed something to eat because she worked after school."

"Her name was Alexis." Dean continued. "She finally left at the age of sixteen. Said she was going to stay at a friend's house until she was able to figure out where could go next. Afte that, it was literally just me. My mom would be gone so much because of the crazy shit she was doing, so I had to force myself to learn even more, how to cook. I had to take care of myself."

"Have you seen your sister since?" I asked softly.

Dean thought for a moment and sadly shook his head. "Alexis was tired of always having to make up for my mom's mistakes. She had to grow up fast to take care of me and make sure that I wasn't getting into any trouble. It wasn't me that was bothering my sister, is all the shit that my mom did and put us through. It just got worse for me when mom realized that she left and that she may not be coming back home. The last straw was during that time when we weren't talking. I had gone back home to try it out for a while and see how it would go."

"What happened?" I asked.

He took a sip of his soda. "Mom and I fought more than ever. It was constant and when we _weren't _fighting, the tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. You could just feel it in the air. The day before I left, I had found her having sex with some random guy on the couch. That just so happened to be where I slept, so I slept in a little corner. The next day, she tried the whole I do nothing around the house thing which I found to be unbelievable because I did everything there. She was gone almost everyday and every night."

We stayed quiet for a while as we continued to enjoy dinner. "Enough about me though. It's _your _day. You're the birthday girl."

I smiled and scrunched my nose when he kissed it. We continued to talk and share a few kisses until we finished. He convinced me to stay in the dining room a little while longer and I was starting to wonder why until he came back in with a little cupcake and two candles on it. One was the number 1 and the other was a number 8.

"The numbers are obviously too big for the cupcake, but I wanted to try it anyways." Said Dean.

I giggled and gave him a hug and then pulled back to look at him. "Why are you doing all of this for me?"

Dean gave me a small smile. "Because I love you."

Everything was slowing down to a sudden stop as I made out what my boyfriend had just said to me. "You love me?"

"Yeah." He replied. "Leah Lopez, I'm in love with you. It scares me sometimes because this is the first time that I've ever been in love, so it took a bit to realize what it was that I was feeling. But almost losing you a few months ago...it made me realize how much you really mean to me."

My heart soared and was beating out of my chest and I couldn't help but smile, especially seeing the innocence in his eyes. "I love you too, Dean. Thank you for making my birthday special today."

"You deserve it, babygirl." He replied. We shared a kiss and we pulled back. "Now eat your cupcake before the candles melt it or something."

We both laughed before I blew out the candles. I followed Dean to the living room as he popped in a movie. I cuddled up to him and gave him a piece of my cupcake as we watched the movie. It wasn't long before Dean and I made a mess and were laughing uncontrollably.

Going upstairs to wash up, I couldn't take off the smile that was on my face. I was on cloud nine right now and I felt so lucky to have somebody like Dean. He's done more for me since the day we met, than a lot of people have in my whole 18 years of existance. Walking back out to my room, I saw that it was lightning outside and that it was beginning to pour. I went to Dean's room as I always did when it was storming outside and sat on his bed as I waited for him to come out of the bathroom. When he finally did, he sat next to me after closing the door. The only light illuminating the room was from outside, which wasn't much now that it was cloudy and raining like crazy.

I pulled on his shirt so that he can get closer to me and when he did, I gave him a kiss. Dean took my face in his hands when his lips began to move against mine. The kiss started out soft and sweet, but then became passionate and deep. I found myself unbuttoning his shirt all the way until he pulled back slightly. Seeing lust in his eyes, I nipped his bottom lip.

The look in our eyes said everything that we needed to say in that moment. Dean took his shirt off, leaving his black wife beater on when he stood up. He leaned down and grabbed my face in his hands and kissed me again. Getting up myself, I took his face in mine when I felt him beginning to roam his hands around my body. Dean gently pulled on my pants and when I didn't fight back on it, he unbuttoned it.

I let my pants slide down to the floor and kicked them off my feet. It was my turn to do the same and I watched as he stripped down to his briefs. He picked me up and laid me down in his bed. He hovered over me and gave me kisses before moving down to my neck. I let out a soft moan, feeling his lips on my skin. I smiled when I realized that he was taking his time.

Sitting up, I pulled my shirt over my head and threw it where the rest of our clothes were. Grabbing his face, we kissed again as we layed back into the bed. Dean quickly unclipped my bra and slipped it off. Feeling his fingers curl underneath the fabric of my panties, I allowed him to take it off as well.

Hearing the loud thunder, followed by the lightning, I held on to him tightly. His kisses became sweeter and my moans continued to come out softly at the light pleasure that he was giving me. Dean's kisses reached my stomach and then to my thighs. When he hovered over me again, I gave him kisses of my own as my lips traveled to his chest.

Feeling him place himself in between my legs, I felt why he did when he pressed against me. Dean entered the tip of his erected member and I let out a moan. He gently entered as far as he could and let me adjust to him. As Dean began to move, I couldn't help but moan out in pleasure. Hearing Dean's groans as he rocked his body in and out of me, I pulled at his hair when I dug my hands into it. I arched my back into him, causing him to go a bit deeper.

"Leah..." He whispered into my ear and nipped at my neck. I moaned and closed my eyes, leaning my head back into the pillow in pleasure. It wasn't long until I felt myself reaching my climax and trying to hold it in, right when thunder rumbled louder than before, my climax rippled through my body as I dug my nails into Dean's back. He pulled out, and released his warm liquid onto the bottom of my stomach

We breathed heavily against each other as we both came down from our high. It wasn't my first time at this, but it was with Dean. He got up after a few minutes and went into the bathroom. Coming back out, he cleaned me up a bit and went back in.

Crawling into bed when he came back out, Dean wrapped his arms around me as I cuddled up to him. Pulling the covers up, he gave me a kiss and I smiled happily against his lips. We shared a few more lazy kisses before making love a few more times.

_**The next day...**_

Waking up in Dean's room, I was reminded of last night and smiled. I still felt a bit tired, but I was looking forward to today. Coming down to the kitchen 45 minutes later, Dean was in the kitchen with Roman. I greeted Roman with a hug and Dean with a kiss.

"Are you ready for today?" Dean asked.

"What's going on today?" I asked, wondering.

Roman and Dean both looked at each other. "We're throwing a party for you tonight at Jey and Jimmy's house as a continuation of your birthday. Now you'll get what you wanted. A birthday with Dean and your friends."

I grinned at the both of them as I grinned in excitement. "I don't think I've ever been this happy for a party, but don't screw this up because it's the first one I've had since I was five. I'll rip you apart if it's not."

"We believe you on that." Said Dean. "That's why Trinity is making sure everything is fine. She's better at this than we are."

I giggled and gave Dean a kiss. He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed my temple.

"I love you, Leah." He whispered into my ear when Roman continued to make breakfast.

"I love you, too." I replied with a smile. Looking into his eyes, I knew that he had meant it and that I had a hold on his heart and I wasn't going to let go anytime soon.

**A/N: How do you think Dean did for Leah's birthday? Did he do a good job? And how about that little part where it seemed as if he was getting protective of her at the mall? What do you think of Leah's step-father being back into the picture after all of these months of not seeing her? Do you think he'll try to harm her? Do you think her mom will want to see her again if she finds out that her husband has found Leah? **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you to Alexandria M, jessica619, corbettluv, DeeMarie426, 'Guest' and justkimmy for reviewing :) **

Laying in bed, Leah snuggled up to my side as we were still tangled up in the sheets. I smiled at her and kissed her head as we laid in bed. I've kept her up all night, and it wasn't slowing down at all this morning either.

"What has you so happy that you've been making amazing love to me the past few days?" Leah asked me when she looked up at me.

"I don't know." I told her as I gave her a kiss and playing with some of her hair. "I just think we need to keep celebrating your birthday, even though it's been two weeks since it's passed."

She giggled and snuggled closer to me. "You're a mess."

"Yes, but you love this mess that I call me." I told her as I streched my free arm and propped it under my pillow.

I got her to straddle me and when I pulled her down to kiss me, it turned into another round of love making. When we were done, we got dressed and went on our way to the mall. It was the weekend, but we wanted to the mall anyways to see if we could find some new pair of gloves to last us the rest of the winter.

Walking through the mall, I heard Leah whimper softly and pull on my arm. I figured that she may have been cold and put her hand in my pocket. Leah suddenly pulled me quickly into a store and took me to the back of the store to where the dressing rooms were at. Looking into her eyes, I knew that something wasn't right.

"What's wrong?" I asked her as I saw her eyes going all over the place.

Leah hesitated to say anything but knew that I was going to eventually ask her again. "He's here."

Wondering who she was talking about, I realized exactly who when I saw the same look in her eyes as the last time. But this time, it was mixed with frustration.

"Why is he around here all of a sudden?" Leah asked. "He used to hate coming here."

"He probably wants to come here because he thinks he'll see you again." I replied.

She rolled her eyes at the thought of what happened the last time they saw each other. When he came into the store, she pulled me into one of the dressing rooms and locked the door. Seeing her take her coat off, I did the same and put it up on the hook.

Leah mouthed that it was him when we heard a man's voice getting close to the room we were in. I grabbed her behind and picked her up, letting her wrap her legs around my waist. After a few minutes, I put her down before we grabbed our things and walked out. Looking around, Leah couldn't find him anywhere, so we began to leave.

"Leah?" Someone asked. We turned around and it was a man wakling up to us.

"John, what the hell do you want now?" Leah asked.

I looked at him and stood slightly in front of her when he stepped closer to her. "This is the guy you were talking about?"

She nodded when I looked at her. "That's my mom's husband."

"Is there a problem?" He asked in a Southern accent.

"This is the same guy that I saw my mom fuck on three different occasions." I said loud enough for both of them to hear.

Leah gasped and held on to my arm. "Are you serious?"

_**O.O **_

"He's lying to you, darlin'." John told me. "Don't believe him."

Dean looked at me and I knew that he was telling me the truth. "He's being honest, I can tell when he is. I always knew that you were capable of cheating on my mom. There was a part of me that was hoping that you would be the one guy to finally treat her differently. But you just proved me wrong, like you always have."

"Let's forget all about this little conversation." John said. "Come with me and let's get reaquainted again in the bedroom."

Just as John grabbed me, Dean shoved him with enough force to send him stumbling back. I quickly stood in front of Dean to keep him from doing anything else.

"Try to put your hands on her again!" Yelled Dean as he tried to get past me. "I'll be damned if I let you do anything to Leah!"

"Dean!" I exclaimed, wanting him to calm down as he kept trying to get past me as John regained his balance. "Let's go."

I heard John begin to laugh. "Tell your little boyfriend that I need to show him how a real man looks and how a real man handles his thing."

"He's a hell of a lot more of a man than you ever were since the day that I met you." I snapped at him. "Why don't you just leave me the hell alone?! You've caused enough trouble for me. I don't need you causing anymore damage."

John snorted. "He's just a little boy. What's a boy going to do for you that you feel that I can't?"

Dean rushed passed me, but was quickly stopped by Roman whose huge frame did a better job at keeping Dean from physically doing anything when he came out of nowhere and almost tackled Dean.

"You don't know what the hell you're getting yourself into." Dean told John as Roman continued to hold him back. "That girl right there is my everything and I will NOT let you or any other guy do her harm, do you understand me?!"

Roman was able to get a firm grip on Dean and pulled him aside leaving me alone with John and the audience of shoppers that were there watching the whole thing. I quickly left and followed Roman seeing that Dean was fighting him back on this.

"Dean, that's enough!" Yelled Roman, making him stop yelling and stand there before pacing back and forth. When he saw me, I quickly walked into his arms and happily sighed at the feeling of being in his arms.

Looking up at him, I saw him struggling to calm down. Dean pressed his forehead against mine as his hands continued to take in all of me, as if I had been gone for days.

"I'm okay." I whispered to him, as if answering a question he had in that head of his.

"I love you." Dean whispered in my ear before digging his face into my neck.

I smiled and kissed his ear. "I love you, too."

"You wanna spend the day with me and the guys?" Asked Roman. When I tried to pull back, realizing that he was talking to Dean, he pulled me right back in and wouldn't let go. Staying in his arms to keep him calm, he poked his head up and looked at Roman and nodded.

"Leah can stay with me." Said Trinity with a smile as she walked up to us with Jimmy and Jey. "We could have some girl time."

I grinned and looked at Dean. "You gonna be okay?"

Dean thought for a moment. "I'll be good."

We shared another 'I love you' and a few more kisses before I went with Trinity. On our way to the food court, we bumped into Vanessa who was with some of her friends. She walked up to Trinity and I with a smile on her face.

"Don't tell me you're still going to stand by a tempermental guy, like Dean." Said Vanessa.

"Today's not the best day to test my patience." I told her. "Besides don't worry about Dean. He's not your boyfriend. Why do you care so much about what he says and does anyways?"

Vanessa looked at me. "Because he's not good for you."

"Yes, you've told me that already." I replied. "What I don't get is why you waited until we started dating to be against him. You could have told me whatever problem you had with him before it happened, Vanessa. Don't you find it weird that you wait until that happens to say something, because I sure do."

She said nothing as she stood in front of me, still. "You don't know the things that man has done for me since we met. You just see what he shows you. Don't get it twisted, Vanessa. You may know him longer than I have, but I know him better. I'm the one that has conversations with him at three in the morning because we can't sleep. I'm the one that sees the real him that nobody else does, because they're too busy worrying about the cover of the book that he shows. Dean is an amazing man and I'm not going to give up on him just because you don't like him."

I walked away with Trinity, leaving her standing right where she was. Looking around, I was glad to not see John anywhere, but I was still upset about seeing him. I know that it's been a few months since I had seen him, but still. John was the reason for why I was kicked out of the house a month before the school year began. I don't know what he's doing that has my mother seeing him as a damn saint.

_**O.O **_

I was still ticked off about what had happened earlier, but I was beginning to cool off. I just wanted to know that Leah was okay and that the asshole of a guy didn't do anything to her while I wasn't around.

Roman and his twin cousins were three guys that I could always count on for some guy time, and just in general. They were all good guys and I know I've been in need of some good people in my life.

My phone vibrated and when I looked, it was Leah. She had sent a picture of her pouting and saying that she missed me. I couldn't help but smile at the pout that she always gave me that I couldn't ever resist. I missed her so much and it's only been a few hours. I don't know how I ever made it through those three and half weeks of her not being around.

"Ambrose is completely in love." Said Jimmy as they all looked at me. "It has to be Leah with that smile that he has."

I chuckled and made a face. "Yes, I'll admit that I'm in love. And maybe it's true that I'm wrapped around her finger, but I wouldn't change a thing."

Eating another slice of pizza, I finished watching a movie with the guys when Leah and Trinity walked in through the door. Not being able to take the stupid grin off of my face, I pulled Leah into my arms and spun her around. Hearing her giggle was music to my ears as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

After putting her coat away for her, Leah grabbed my hand and stood by my side with a smile on her face as we saw everybody having a good time. When everybody left Leah went to go take a shower, but came out quickly and into my room a few minutes later.

"Dean, I wanna cuddle." Leah told me sweetly. "Please?"

I pulled the covers back on my bed and let her get in first. Wrapping her up in my arms, I gave her a few kisses before turning the television on.

"Do you feel better from earlier?" She asked me softly.

I nodded. "I just...he put his hands on you and all I saw was red. I don't know what I'd do if I let something bad happen to you. My first instinct was to try to protect you."

"I'm not mad at you for acting the way that you did." She told me as I felt her fingers on my chest. "I'd want to protect you too."

Feeling my fingers curl her hair, I played with it and watched her smile happily.

"How many times did you see him with your mom?" Leah asked.

"About three times." I replied. "But it was after I met you. I didn't know that that he was your step-dad."

She stayed quiet for a bit. "It's okay. Let's promise that we won't ever do to each other, what our parents did."

"I promise, baby." I told her, looking into her eyes.

"I promise, too." She replied.

We shared a kiss and I tickled her a bit, making her laugh. She quickly cuddled back up to me when I was done. Even when she fell asleep about an hour later, I smiled at Leah's peaceful face. I never knew that one could feel so much love for another person. It made you feel like you were on top of the world but it scared knowing that they have your heart in their hands. I didn't want anyone else with my heart. I only want her.

**A/N: Both John and Vanessa aren't going to let up anytime soon. What did you think about Dean going all protective mode for Leah? She really has him wrapped around her finger, doesn't she? *In a good way, of course lol* **

**Another thing, Roman Reigns last night on Raw throwing that block to Seth, almost catching him in the head? I think it's time that WWE lets him get a bit of revenge while Dean is out for another few weeks. It gives Roman a chance to get at Seth. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you to jessica679, Alexandria M, justkimmy, DeeMarie426 for reviewing :) **

"Can you put that there, please?" I asked the men that were putting the couch into our new apartment. It was a studio apartment, but it was the most affordable one that we could find. We didn't have much, just a bed, a couch and a few chairs. Roman and his twin cousins were helping Dean set up the television, while Trinity helped with the furniture.

The apartment was small, but it was cozy and enough for Dean and I until we went to college. There was beige carpet our dining room would be our living room. We didn't have to walk far between the living room and the bedroom, seeing as it was about the same size as a hotel room. We only had one bathroom which was a lot smaller than what it was in Roman's house but it was better than nothing.

Once everything was done and put into place, Dean and I cleaned up a bit and decided to go to the supermarket to get a few things for the kitchen as well as food. Luckily, our new place was close enough to where we could walk and not have to worry about taking a car.

"I was thinking about getting my license." I told Dean as we held hands all the way to the supermarket. "I would need to take the five hour class first though to be able to take the road test. Even if we can't afford a car right now, having a license can help."

"I think it's a good idea." He replied. "I don't know if I should take it here though or wait until I get to college to do it since it's going to be in another state."

I thought for a moment. "Have you heard anything from a school yet?"

"I got something in the mail yesterday from three of them." Dean said. "But I haven't opened it yet. I hope it's something good."

"It will be. I'm sure of it." I replied, and saw him smile. "It should be something good. Maybe we can stop by Roman's later to see if I got anything. They still have Roman's address for my things."

"We'll go when we get everything settled later on." Dean told me. He gave me a sweet peck and then a kiss to my forehead. "Did you write that list on the things we need?"

I nodded. "I'll cross them off as we get them."

_**...**_

Getting back to our apartment, I looked around as finished putting everything away. Feeling Dean hug me from behind, I leaned into him and kissed his cheek.

"It's nice and cozy, don't you think?" I asked.

"Yeah." Dean simply said. "It's a hell of a whole lot better than how we were when we first met. We snuck into the school every night and slept in the locker rooms. You were sleeping in the park before we met. So I believe that we've done a hell of a job and we're only 18 years young."

Turning around to face him, I wrap my arms around his neck and looked up at him. "We'll be okay."

Dean slowly smiled, showing his dimples. "We'll be okay."

He leaned down and fully captured my lips with his. "I love you, Leah."

Butterflies fluttered their wings at the way he said it, putting a silly smile on my face. "I love you, too."

We shared another kiss before getting ready to leave again.

_**O.O**_

Getting to Roman's house, he handed Leah some mail that came in for her and it was about the same size as what I got, but from a few different schools. Leah and I both opened them at the same time and they were all acceptance letters to the colleges we applied to.

"We got in!" Leah exclaimed as we hugged with excitement rising within us.

I was in complete shock. I didn't think that I would ever get into college, let alone wanting to go. The most surprising thing was that one of the schools that accepted me, offered me a full ride into their undergraduate program.

"What's wrong?" Asked Leah when she noticed that I wasn't saying much.

"Nothing." I told her. "The University of Miami is offering me a full ride."

"That's great. They offered me one as well. I'm so proud of you!" Leah told me as she gave me a kiss. Seeing that I didn't reply, her face filled with worry and thoughts. "What's wrong? Do you not want to go? We could always choose another school if you don't want to go there, it's okay, really."

I shook my head quickly, to keep her from thinking that we may not be together as much or that it's something that I didn't want.

"I really want to go, Leah. I promise and they're the only school so far giving me a full ride to their program." I replied quickly when I took her face in my hands. "I just think that I'm still in shock. I never thought that I'd get in and with bad things always happening to me before you came into my life, I was silently hoping that nothing bad would come out of this."

"You're not acting like you want to go." Leah said quietly. "Look, I'm not going to force you to go if you don't want to, Dean. But don't make me think that you will and then change your mind once you get accepted. If you never wanted to go, then you shouldn't have applied to begin with. Meaning, don't say you're going to do something and then you don't do it. I told you that I would never look at you any differently just because you don't go to college and I meant it. I still do because I love you, Dean. I'll still stand by your side."

_Shit. This conversation isn't going well. _I thought. "But I do want to go, that's why I applied."

My answer, no matter how true it was, didn't change her mood much. Leah just looked down and went back to reading her letters without saying a thing.

"Leah?" I said, pleading for her to listen to me.

"What?" She asked, not looking up at me as she fixed her papers.

I knew that she wasn't going to say much, so I just went back to reading my acceptance letters. I had recieved another one to the University of Florida in Gainesville and Louisiana State University. It was a hell of a long way from here, regardless of which one I chose to attend.

"Dinner's ready." Said Roman about an hour later when he walked out of the kitchen. "Is everything okay, you two are pretty quiet."

I looked at him when I got up. "She's not talking much."

"Leah's upset, isn't she?" He asked. "That's the only reason she doesn't talk much. Either that, or she's not feeling good."

"She got the wrong idea about the whole school thing." I told him quietly. "Leah thinks I'm backing out on what I said about wanting to go."

"Are you?" He asked.

I scoffed. "No! I just expect something bad to happen."

Roman thought for a moment. "Is that an excuse to end up not going or do you really expect something bad to happen? Now do you see why she may think that you're backing out?"

"What's for dinner?" Asked Leah when she walked up beside me.

_**...**_

When we got home later that night, Leah quickly went to take a shower and got into her pajamas when she came out. After my 20 minute shower, I attempted to sit next to her on the couch and surprisingly, she didn't tell me to get away from her.

"Do you want to sit closer to me?" I asked Leah and watched her slightly pout and softly shook her head as she pulls her legs up to her and wrapped her arms around them. For the first time since I met her, she looked vulnerable when she did that.

I get up and sit closer to her anyways. Leah looks at me and blinks a few times without saying anything, still. I rest my chin on her knee and play with her fingers. After a few minutes, Leah's lips slowly grow into a small smile.

"I love you." I told her softly. "You have me wrapped around your finger entirely and I'm actually okay with that. I meant what I said earlier about wanting to go. I'm just scared. I never thought that I would get this far and I don't know what to expect. It's a chapter of my life that I never thought that I would ever experience and I don't know what to do. I just don't want something bad to happen to screw it up."

"You'll have me." Leah whispered softly.

I smiled. "I'll have you."

Leah remained quiet once again and watched as my fingers grazed softly over hers.

"I'm not mad about the college thing. I mean what I said about not seeing you any differently because I won't. " She finally said after a few more minutes. "My thing is just when you say that you're going to do something or make it seem like you are, don't back out on it. I've had to deal with people like that all my life and I'm tired of it. Just keep your word, no matter what."

I thought about what she had said and saw how Leah may have thought that I would back out on it. Leaning in to give her a kiss, Leah gave me a look telling me otherwise before turning her head towards the other direction.

I looked up at the television to see the news playing and listened to it for a few minutes. "I'm sorry if I made it seem like that, it wasn't my intention. But you know me, Leah. Why would I ever back out on something that I say I'll do?"

"I didn't say that you were that type of person." Leah told me. "I know you well enough."

She put her legs down and streched a bit before getting up a few minutes later after complete silence from both of us. I watched as she got some water and then went to the bathroom. After coming out, Leah came back into the living room.

"I'm going to bed." Was all Leah said. "Goodnight."

I closed my eyes in pleasure without Leah seeing when she curled my hair around her finger and traced the words 'I love you' on my shoulder. I felt her stop and heard her walk away to the bed that we would share. What was really wrong with Leah? She's never upset for this long when it comes to something that has to do with me or her.

"Leah..." I said, trying to get her attention. She turned around a few seconds later and looked over at me. "I love you."

She gave me a small smile and turned back around. Sighing, I sunk down on the couch and lowered the volume a bit on the television to not keep Leah awake. I was hoping that she would be okay by tomorrow morning. It had been almost a month since we last saw her step-father and Vanessa hasn't bothered us in a few days. I hope that either one of both of them for that matter, was part of why Leah was feeling the way she was today.

**A/N: You think something more is going on with Leah that's making her so upset? Do you think it's all just a misunderstanding? What do you think about Dean and Leah finally having their own place? **

**One more thing, I know this is the shortest chapter so far in this story and I apologize. I will try to make the next one a little longer. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you to Alexandria M, jessica619, justkimmy and DeeMarie426 for reviewing :)**

**A/N: This chapter will have John's POV. **

**Warning: *Contains sexual content/language* **

Getting out of the shower, I saw that Leah was sitting in bed, near the window. Her blue eyes were illuminated by the light coming into the room from outside and her brown hair was wet and smelled like strawberries. I slowly sat next to her and hooked her hair behind her ears.

"Leah, baby, what's wrong?" I asked her softly. Resting my hand on her thigh, I stroked it. She had been upset for the last few days but she woouldn't say much on what was bothering her.

She whimpered softly and quickly went into my arms. Without saying a word, I just held her and gave her a few kisses on her forehead.

"My mom's sick." I heard Leah say. "Really sick and she doesn't know if she'll be able to get better."

I looked at her. "You saw your mom?"

Leah nodded. "I saw her the day before we moved in here. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to worry you. She didn't do anything to me, she just came in and when she saw me walking around, it was to late for me to get away by the time I noticed. She said that she was sick and that she wanted me to go back home to help take care of her. I can't just drop everything that I have going on right now to risk her kicking me out again. I don't even think she's sick. Mom reaked of alcohol. And then the day we got opened the letters in, and the whole argument...I got scared that we wouldn't be together as much if I went to college and I don't know what I'd do without you."

I laid back in bed and let her lay on top of me, eventually digging her face into the crook of my neck. Leah whimpered again and I warpped my arms completely around her this time. "Baby, I'm coming with you, wherever you choose to go. I'm not leaving your side, Leah. I promise."

She nuzzled my neck and kissed my chin as she got more comfortable on top of me. "I want to stay with you."

"You will, Leah." I told her reassuringly. "You have me."

There was a few moments of silence before any one of us spoke again. "Did you mean it when you said that I have you wrapped around my finger?"

"Yeah, I meant that." I replied. "You have me doing any and everything you want and you've completely turned me into a softie for you. I'm okay with it, though."

Leah picked her head up and nudged my nose with hers as a few strands of her hair fell in her face. I hooked her hair behind her ears again and stroked her face with my fingers.

"Is it okay if I kiss you now?" I asked her and saw a smile form on her lips. "It's been a few days since we last kissed and I really miss those pretty lips of yours."

She giggled softly and inched her face a little closer. I met her halfway and gave her a kiss. It felt good feeling her lips again. Leah was still a bit upset about the whole thing, but she had calmed down enough to tell me what was going on.

_**O.O**_

Walking through the mall to pick up a few things, I saw a guy that looked familiar. No, it wasn't John and it wasn't some guy that I hated and never wanted to see again. It was someone that I always got along with, no matter how much of a douche his father was. I smiled when he saw me and we walked up to each other.

"Derek, how are you?" I asked as we hugged. "It feels like forever since we last saw each other."

He was tall like his father, but he looked completely like his mother. Green eyes, a few freckles, light brown hair and definitely her smile. He was more muscular than his father and more athletic. He went to one of the best schools in Cincinatti and was extremely smart.

"I'm doing pretty good." He replied as we pulled back. "Got into college, so I'll be going in the fall. We haven't seen each other in a while, but you getting out of there was the best decision you've made. Staying there with my dad and your mom has been torture for me. He's been cheating on her ever since you left, and this time, he has some new girl. She looks really young but I don't know her."

"He's been cheating on my mom since before they got married." I told him. "That's nothing new."

Dean walked up to us a few minutes later and wrapped his arm around my waist. I kissed his cheek and saw him smile when he looked at me.

"This is Dean." I told Derek. "He's my boyfriend and we got to school together. Dean, this is Derek. He's my step-brother, but he's nothing like his dad. He's actually really nice."

They greeted each other and I noticed that Dean wouldn't let me go. I snuggled closer to him when I realized why. Looking over Derek's shoulder, John was standing in the distance with his phone attached to his ear as he talked away to whomever was on the other line. When Derek realized what had caught our attention, he turned back to us.

"I'm guessing you've had a few run ins with him." He said to us and then looking at Dean.

"No offense, but he's lucky I haven't punched his face in." Dean replied. "I don't appreciate your dad putting his hands on her and talking to her the way he did."

Derek sighed and nodded. "My dad doesn't know any boundaries and the ones he does know about, he doesn't care for. I'm not trying to make excuses for him, I'm just letting you know."

We all stood there for a few more minutes with me trying to hide inbetween my boyfriend and my step-brother, knowing that I was small enough to not be seen. We heard John calling his name just moments later, causing him to groan.

"Before I go, I'm having a party at my house." Derek told us. "The two of you can come if you want. It's this Saturday at eight."

Dean and I looked at each other and thought about it. He nodded and turned his attention to Derek.

"We're going to need a ride." Dean said as he held on to my waist again. Derek took out a piece of paper and a pen and gave us his phone number.

"I'll come pick you up and give you two a ride to my place." Said Derek. "Just give me a call or text to let me know where to pick you up."

We thanked him and watched him go back to his dad who looked at us before we had a chance to turn around. Dean's jaw tightened as he let out a low growl before standing in front of me when John gave me a smirk.

"Dean..." I said as I grabbed onto his arm when I stepped in front of him. "Don't do anything."

_**...**_

The rest of the week came and went and before you knew it, Saturday was here. Derek had just picked us up in his luxurious Mercedes-Benz and took us to his place. A part of me was dreading reaching his house because that was the same house that I was kicked out of all those months ago. The same house that his father, my step-dad, tried to have sex with me in. The same house that my mother would hear me complain and cry out for something to be done for all of this bad to be over, and nothing happened. She watched me walk out of that very house and did nothing. I was halfway near changing my mind and forgetting about the party but if I wanted to get over what had happened, going back could be the first step for me.

When we got to the house, it looked like just the way it was when I left. A two story mansion made of brick and stone. If nothing changed in and around the house, then it still had a massive back yard with a pool that was bigger than any other pool that I had ever seen. There was pool house with a grill attached to it for whenever a barbeque was wanted with friends and family.

There were six bedrooms and five and a half baths. A kitchen larger than the apartment that Dean and I had with an island in the middle of it. All of the counters were made of granite with top of the line equipment as if a cheif lived there. Plush carpets filled every room except for the bathrooms and the kitchen. Top of the line technology for the security cameras that lined up every corner of the outside of the house and near the three garages even though it was in a gated community.

"Damn this almost looks better than Roman's house." Mumbled Dean as we got out of the car. When we got in, we had heard faint noises coming from upstairs and when we saw a curious look on Derek's face, we followed him upstairs after putting our things away. When we passed by one of the rooms it was John with Vanessa underneath him as they laid across the bed while he penetrated her. If it wasn't for Dean pulling me to the side when he saw the look on my face, I'm sure that they would have heard the gasp that escaped my lips.

"How do they know each other?" I asked when we rushed back downstairs.

"That's the girl I told you about." Said Derek. "You know her?"

Dean and I looked at each other in disbelief. "Yeah! Her name is Vanessa and she goes to our school. She's in our class. I didn't know that she knew your dad."

"How did Vanessa meet him?" Asked Dean.

Derek shrugged. "I have no idea. I just knew that I saw my dad bring her home one day and since Leah's mom was working the night shift, they literally fucked all night. She left about twenty minutes before Leah's mom got home. I didn't know that you knew her and because I haven't seen Leah in months, I didn't know where she was to say anything. I knew it wouldn't be long before he found someone to fuck. He's a serial cheater. It's why my mom left him. Unfortunately, she left me with him in the process."

Dean and I couldn't believe what we just saw and heard. "Is that why Vanessa's been such a bitch lately?"

"It depends on how long they've been at it." Replied Dean. "I'll be surprised if they've been at it any longer than we think. But that would mean that she would have had to tell him about us before he actually saw us together."

"What else did Vanessa tell him about us?" I asked myself, wondering what could have been said. "I trusted her. She knew the things that John tried to do with me and yet she stands by his side, allowing him to fuck her whenever he wants."

Just as that was said, we heard footsteps coming from the stairs and saw that it was Vanessa, fixing her shirt with John right behind her as he fixed his pants. When she saw Dean and I standing at the bottom of the stairs, she froze in her steps.

"Leah! Dean!" She exclaimed, pretending to be excited to see us. "What are you doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing." Said Dean as she stood in front of me. If people thought that I was small, Vanessa was even smaller. She was shorter and much skinnier than I was.

As John was beginning to talk, I gave him a death glare causing him to smirk. I couldn't even get myself to stand in front of them any longer and just walked away.

_**O.O **_

Watching Leah walk away, Dean stood there still looking between Vanessa and I. Clearing my throat, I got Vanessa's attention and held her by the waist.

"How long have you been screwing this guy?" Dean asked Vanessa.

"I don't owe you an explanation." Vanessa replied. "I'm 18 already. I can have sex with whomever I want."

Dean scoffed and shook his head before walking away. Vanessa looked down before getting her things. I gently grabbed and got her to face me. I knew that she was feeling bad about something, but I assured her time and again that it was for the best. Backing her up into a corner near the closet, I slipped my hand into her pants and began pumping my fingers into her tight center, making her gasp in surprise and grab on tightly to my arm.

"Just remember that it'll all be worth it in the end." I whispered in her ear as she moaned softly. "I know how much you love this."

Grabbing her hand, I placed it on my member and got her to stroke it when she slipped her hand inside. I let out a groan with how good it felt with my erection now growing again. I heard her drop her things and I pulled back slightly.

"Follow me." I ordered. When we got downstairs, we heard noises of our own and when we peaked around the corner, Leah and Dean were in my office and at my desk. Dean was leaning against my desk while Leah gave him a blow job that looked like it was heaven on Earth for Dean as he had a handful of her hair in his hand while he had stuffed her mouth with his dick. After what looked like him unloading in her mouth, Leah pulled away and seductively wiped her lips before Dean undressed her.

Unbuckling my pants, I began to stroke myself to an erection again. While I would have been livid, knowing that they were having sex on my desk, I found pleasure in seeing Leah naked. Her plump breasts making any guy want them in their hands, her round rear a guy's dream for any guy that prefers that part of a woman's body.

I watched as Leah straddled Dean when he laid down on my desk. He happily massaged her breasts until she took his erection and sunk down on it, causing both of them to moan. I quickly unbuckled Vanessa's pants and took them down with her panties. I turned her around so that she was facing the wall and bent her over. I pushed my erection into her tight and warm hole after getting her wet enough for me to go in without a problem.

Grabbing her waist, I began to thrust into her as I looked up watching Leah move her hips in a hypnotizing way as she rode the guy that was underneath her. Vanessa kept her moans quiet as Leah's was heard throughout the office. I wasn't worried about that Dean boy at the moment, I would get to him at a later time. My attention was focused on Leah's beautiful body which is what I've been wanting to get a hold of since I first saw her.

Looking down, I watched as my member disappeared in Vanessa as her juices began to flow onto my dick. I groaned in pleasure, feeling her walls become tighter around me. I was reminded of how good her lady part could be every time I buried my erection inside of her. I looked back at Leah who was still riding the guy as he thrusted into her while he had a firm hold on her hips. She was in pleasure, as was he. I imagined how tight and wet she must be as I continued to pump into Vanessa and how it would feel to be inside her.

As they reached an orgasm, so did I and released my load deep into Vanessa. I gave a few more deep thrusts as if to pump out more of it into her. "Mmm...fuck."

Pulling out, I cleaned her up a bit and let her put her pants back on. Leah stayed in Dean's embrace while they got themselves together. I smirked seeing Leah's naked body once more. If only she knew the times that I would try to see her while she got dressed. The way her nipples looked and how I just wanted to take them amongst my fingers and play with them. Leah always suspected something wrong out of me, but I had her mother so deep into my good side persona that I tried to pull over, that she wouldn't ever believe Leah when she tried to warn her. Who knows what Leah would have done if she knew that I love to try to see her naked and that I stroke myself almost every night, thinking about her.

"Thanks for the pussy today." I whispered to Vanessa as we went back upstairs. "Fucking you feels amazing."

"It only felt amazing because you were watching two other people fuck." She spat out. "I'll believe it when you tell me that after you fuck me without having to watch other people do it."

I nodded. "So let me fuck you some more tomorrow. Let me remind you why I choose you."

"We'll see." She replied as she put her coat on and walked out the door. Following her, I waited until she left in her car before going back in. Seeing Leah and Dean walking to the kitchen, they were all smiles and helping out Derek with a few things before the party began. I went upstairs to take a shower and got off once more when I stroked my erection. Thinking about Leah and now Vanessa, it wasn't long before I was cumming on my stomach and my fist. Now it was time for me to go out and enjoy myself while my son had a good time with his friends.

**A/N: What do you think about Vanessa messing around with John? Why do you think she's doing it and how do you think it'll effect Leah and Dean? What do you think of John just standing there, enjoying watching Leah being intimate with her boyfriend when others would have been upset that it was happening in their house? **


	15. Chapter 15

**Thank you to jessica619, Alexandria M, DeeMarie426, justkimmy and corbettluv for reviewing :) **

"Hey, Leah." Said a voice behind me as I got a few things from my locker before leaving to go to work. Looking back, I scoffed in disgust seeing that it was Vanessa.

"What do you want, Vanessa?" I asked as I closed my bag and laid the straps on my shoulders. After making sure that I had everything I needed, I closed my locker and looked over at her.

She looked at me seriously before saying anything. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were going to be there."

"Regardless of whether I was there or not and if you knew or not that I would be there is beside the point." I responded. "You knew the shit that I've had to go through because of him and yet you're going to stand there and open your legs for the same man that screwed me over and for what? Did I do something bad to you? Was I ever a bad friend to you, Vanessa?"

"I swear, I didn't know that he was the man that you were talking about." She told me. "But no, you were never a bad friend to me. Besides, we want only want each other for sex. He knows a lot more about it than guys our age and he's more experienced. You weren't the only one moaning when Dean had you on top of him."

I had nothing to say when those words escaped her lips. Having sex in John's office wasn't planned. Dean and I were just in the moment and we wanted to make up for the time that we weren't speaking much after I saw my mother again for the first time in months. After realizing the place in which we were intimate in, we didn't care that it was his office. Dean and I left our mark there.

"At least I'm not spreading my legs for a serial cheater." I retorted. "You'll get feelings for him, Vanessa. I know you will, it always happens in the whole 'friends with benefits thing'. One will always catch feelings. You won't be far behind, Vanessa. I'm just dissappointed that you were the one friend that I could depend on and you showed me that you're not. I was wrong and that was my mistake."

Walking around a bit, I saw Dean turn the corner and I waited for him. He leaned down when he reached me and pecked my lips. "You okay?"

"Vanessa knows we had sex in John's office." I told him quietly, looking every where else except his eyes. "I would have tried to convince you to wait until we got home. I won't be surprised if John was nearby with the things that he could be capable of doing just to get off."

"And it wouldn't have happened, even if you tried." Dean replied. I looked up at him and saw the smirk that had formed on his lips. "The things you do to me..."

Dean made this thing with his eyes and looked as if he started daydreaming. I just laughed and playfully pushed him. He let out a deep chuckle and wrapped his arms around me, softly kissing my head. Walking him to class, I pulled him down for a kiss and felt him deepen it slightly when I felt his fingers at the nape of my neck. Leaning into him, I forced myself to pull back a little as I smiled up at him.

"I love you." I told him.

Dean smiled. "I love you, too baby."

We shared another kiss before letting him go to class. I smiled at him when he sat down and looked towards the door and waved at him. Leaving school, I saw with the corner of my eye, a car drive up and slow down when it reached me. I kept walking, not seeing who the driver was until the person honked the horn. Looking into the car, I saw that it was Derek and smiled as he put the window down.

"Where you headed off too?" He asked.

"Work." I replied. "Dean and I don't have a car, so we walk. He comes out later though because he has another class now but he works at the mall too."

"Let me give you a ride." He suggested. I thought about it for a moment and finally agreed. I got in the car and rested comfortably until we got to the mall. "The reason that I came around was because I wanted to talk to you and Dean about something, but I can wait until the two of you are here so that I can tell you together."

I looked at my step-brother curiously. "Is it something bad?"

"I don't know if you'll consider it bad." Derek replied as we got out of the car. "But it's definitely something that I need to tell the two of you because I think that it's something that you should know."

"Okay, I'll text Dean to let him know and then I'll let you know where we could meet." I told him as we walked into the mall. "Thank you for driving me over here, by the way."

He waved it off. "Don't worry about it. Even though we don't live together anymore, you've been more of a sister to me than my own biological sister ever was."

I smiled and shared a hug with him. "I'll see you later."

"Nobody's going to make Dean think that I was trying to do something with you right?" Derek asked me, moving around nervously as he looked at me. "Dean looks like the type of guy who'd be intimidating if he was mad. He's protective of you so it makes him more intimidating if he thinks a guy did something to you and he works in one of these stores and he's not afraid to fight and he doesn't know that I'm here just yet...I just wanna avoid that and yeah. Dean's a nice guy, but yeah."

I laughed softly. "You should stay in the food court, then. Dean's a bit crazy sometimes, but I still love him."

"I can tell." He said with a soft smile. "Dean's crazy about you."

Smiling, I waved at him and left to work.

_**O.O**_

Getting out of work, I reached the food court and saw Leah sitting at one of the tables with Derek as she looked around. She pouted, indicating that she may have been bored and crossed her eyes confirming that she was. I chuckled and walked over to her table and connected my eyes with Leah's when she looked in my direction. She gave me a sweet smile and jumped into my arms when I got close enough. Taking her into my arms, I spun her around and gave her a kiss when I put her down.

I smiled hearing her giggle and gave her another kiss before greeting Derek and sitting next to Leah. Putting my things down, I put my arm around Leah and felt her snuggle closer to me. She poked me a few times, in an effort to tickle me and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay, lovebirds." Said Derek. "Let me tell you why I wanted to talk to the two of you in person, rather than over the phone."

We turned our attention to him when our laughter died down a bit, though I still kept Leah in my arms. "What happened?"

"Remember when we saw that girl with my dad on the day of my party?" Asked Derek. "You said that she goes to your school?"

"Yeah, we remember." I replied. "Her name's Vanessa."

Derek nodded. "Well, I saw her again yesterday. Mind you, this is three days after the party. She was obviously with my dad and they were up in his room. I surprisingly heard them talking and when I was passing by, I heard them say Leah's name."

"Why were they talking about me?" She asked.

"Are you sure it's this Leah that they were talking about?" I asked.

He nodded. "It's the only Leah that I know. That Vanessa girl was telling him something about some fantasies that you were having about Dean before you started dating."

Leah gasped sharply as her eyes widened. I almost let out a smirk, knowing that she was having fantasies about me before we started dating. I stopped myself from letting it show when I saw her jaw tighten a little. By the look in her eyes, I could tell that she was becoming embarrased rather quickly, knowing that the admission was now known to me and her step-brother.

"Did she say anything specific about those 'fantasies'?" Asked Leah with venom dripping from her voice.

Derek winced as he carefully nodded noticing the same thing that I did. "I didn't listen to anything past the first one that she mentioned."

"Damn, more than one?" I asked with a smirk, immediately regreting it when I saw the look on her face. It was a mix of hurt, anger and embarassment, quickly changing into a look that wouldn't give anything away as to what she was thinking or feeling. Of course, the guy part of me wanted to know, but realistically speaking, my girlfriend was embarrased.

"When Vanessa was done, I heard my dad saying something about how he wants her to get more out of you." Derek continued. "He also said that he feels like he needs to do something to get Dean away from Leah. My guess is that one of them, or least both of them want to get the two of you apart. Or at least long enough for something to happen to prevent you from getting back together."

I tensed up at the thought of losing Leah. I almost lost her once and I didn't want it to actually happen this time around. Not when we've come so far from when we first met. I felt a bit of anger as I sat there wondering why Vanessa would want to do such a thing.

"John, I understand, but Vanessa?" I asked out loud. "I've been nothing but good to her since we met. I don't know where all this is coming from."

Derek and I both looked at Leah who literally had a blank look on her face as she stared into nothing. "I want to break her pretty little face in."

The fact that Leah was so calm as she spoke those words, worried me. I knew that she was probably hurting, and she had every right to be. Vanessa was somebody that she considered a good friend and trusted her with a lot of things.

"Don't because it'll give away that I said something to you about it." Derek said.

"He's right." I told Leah. "As of right now, Derek's the only one that can help us. Doing or saying something to Vanessa about what she said to your step-dad would only make them hide things a lot better. If it wasn't for us going to Derek's party on Saturday, we wouldn't have known that they were messing around and who knows if we would have ever found out. Trust me, I want to say something to her too but if that means that it'll cause us to lose the one person that's willing to help us out, then I'm not going to."

Leah crossed her legs and continued to have a blank look on her face. Her blue eyes were ice and filled with some rage. Her lips twitched and I knew that she was trying to keep herself together but her eyes filled with tears in the process causing her to blink them away.

"I'm going home." She said as she quickly got up from her seat and put on her sweater and her coat before grabbing her bag. "Is there anything else that I need to know?"

"Leah.." I started off saying before she put up her hand.

"Don't." She told me. "Do not tell me to calm down. I trusted Vanessa with everything and this is the shit that she's going to pull?"

"I'm just as upset as you are, Leah." I said, getting up as well hoping that I could get her to sit back down and stick around a little while longer. "We need to think about how we're going to deal with it instead of messing up a chance to get enough against them to be able to stand strong against Vanessa and John."

"I care about you, Leah." Added Derek. "I always have since we met. You and I have always been close and we've always had a strong bond. We're like brother and sister but Dean is right. Wait until you have enough against Dad and Vanessa so that you and him can stand strong against them. Show them that you're not going to let them get you down."

Leah looked at me. "You're not the one whose fantasies about someone are being public. I'm the one that's going to be embarrased more than what I already am if it gets out beyond the three of us. My step-brother already knows, how many other people need to know?"

"You weren't thinking about that when you told Vanessa." I snapped at her. My throat tightened up when I quickly regretted it as I looked at the change in her facial expressions. Leah looked around before looking down to the ground without saying anything.

"When I told her, she was still my friend." Leah said barely above a whisper.

She turned around, just as her face got red and I quickly grabbed her arm. "Wait, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that. I'm not trying to be mean and I'm not upset with you. I'm just frustrated at the bullshit that Vanessa is trying to pull."

Looking as if she was thinking about it, she turned to Derek. "Can you take me home?"

"Yeah, do you want to grab something to eat along the way?" He asked.

Leah agreed and waited for me to get my things. "I can be a bitch when I'm upset, but I'm not leaving you here. Come on."

"Hey..." I said softly as she turned around. Turning her face to look at me, my eyes pleaded with her to believe me and my apology. Her icy blue eyes weren't buying it right now, or so it seemed.

**A/N: What exactly does Vanessa and John have in store for Dean and Leah? Do you think Derek is in the right for wanting to help them out and warn them of what may happen? Does Leah have a right to be upset about Vanessa airing her buisness out to others? Will Leah be able to keep herself together long enough or at all to not give away the fact that her step-brother is helping them out? **


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you to jessica619, justkimmy, Alexandria M, DeeMarie426 for reviewing :) **

"I haven't seen much of you lately." Said Roman as we got out of class. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's good." I replied. "Just a little rough. Remember that day Leah and I went to that party and we saw Vanessa?"

He nodded, remembering.

"Well, a few days later, her step-brother talked to us and let us know that Vanessa and that guy may be up to know good." I continued. "And Vanessa may have told the guy a few things that Leah told her and trusted her with when they were still friends."

"What was it that was said?" Roman asked when we reached our lockers.

I pressed my lips together as I hesitated. "I rather not say. Let's just say that it's something that as a guy, you'd want to hear, but as a boyfriend, you don't want to talk about in a way because of how much it embarrasses her. Well, it doesn't in a way but...I don't know."

"The fact that Vanessa is telling this guy is what's making it embarassing in a way for Leah." Roman finished up saying. "It shows that she may be capable of saying whatever it is to other people as well."

"But why would she be embarrased to tell me?" I asked as I put on my coat.

Roman shrugged. "I don't know what it is, so I can't say. But it's probably something that Leah felt may have been personal and private. Maybe something that she wasn't ready to share just yet. Have you talked to her about it?"

"She hasn't wanted to talk about it." I replied as we walked out of the school. "Leah comes to school and she's so quick to leave before seeing Vanessa that I barely get to see her around until I get to work."

"Vanessa will get what's coming to her. It's just a matter of when and how." Said Roman as we got in his black SUV Tahoe. "What about that Derek guy? Do you really trust him?"

I thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. I've only known him for a few days, so I don't know what to think of him. A part of me wants to because I keep thinking of why he would want to help us if he was against us, but then the other part of me says to just be careful because I don't really know him. I'm nice to him because of Leah but the moment he double crosses me, that's it. I won't think twice about doing anything to him."

"Be careful with him, Dean." Roman said. "I know he says he's trying to help but be careful with him regardless."

When we got to the mall, I walked around for a bit as I looked for Leah. Seeing her at the store that she works in, I walked in and acted as a customer. After 10 minutes, I turned the corner and saw her standing there leaning against the wall, as if waiting for me to get there.

"I uh...I wanted to say that I'm sorry." I told her softly. "I shouldn't have reacted the way that I did a few days ago. I should have been more understanding about you being upset and why."

Leah crossed her arms and pretended to show me something that was nearby to make it seem like she was doing waht she was supposed to.

"It was just something that was supposed to be between Vanessa and I." She replied softly. "I trusted her and it's just a blow to me because she acted like a friend to my face and then she just went and does this. If she's telling people things that I trusted her with, what else is Vanessa capable of doing? To me? To you? I was afraid for you to know that I liked you because I didn't know if you'd feel the same way about me, so I never mentioned anything."

We stayed quiet for a while as we walked around the store with Leah showing me a few things. "Can you forgive me?"

Leah looked up at me with soft blue eyes and I saw as they had a sparkle in them. "I forgive you. Just try to be a little bit more understanding next time."

I nodded and cupped her chin, wanting to kiss her. Leah smiled and looked down reminding me where we were as she played with her hair.

"I'll see you later." I told her quietly with a smile when she wrinkled her nose at me. Wrapping her fingers around mine, I stroked them softly with my thumb. Looking at my watch, I saw that I had about 7 minutes left to get to work, so I gave her a quick kiss on her cheek and left after giving her a wink.

_**O.O **_

Getting off of work, I found it odd that I saw Vanessa and John hanging around and wondered if Derek was anywhere nearby. I haven't spoken to Derek in a few days, even though he's sent me a few texts. I wanted to be left alone for a while and talking to the one guy that heard almost everything that John and Vanessa have talked about against Dean and wasn't going to help anything.

Keeping to myself, I texted Dean letting him know that I was out of work and that I was going to wait for him in the food court. Wanting to avoid Vanessa and my step-dad, I had to take the long way there. Had it not been for that, I would have lost it and slapped Vanessa into next week.

I didn't want to be anywhere near her, knowing that I would do exactly that and not care about what happens. I may be one of the nicest people you could meet, but I will not tolerate the shit that she's pulling off, or at least trying to. I don't have the energy anymore to pretend to be nice to someone like her or to even try to do so.

_**30 Minutes later...**_

Looking around, I haven't seen Derek anywhere and my eyes were getting tired of straining to see any one of the three. It wasn't that I was trying to avoid my step-brother, I just wasn't up for it. All I wanted at the moment was Dean. Just him and I for the rest of the night with nobody to bother us in our own little apartment.

Seeing the time and knowing that Dean and I weren't going to want to cook by the time we got home, I looked around and saw the chicken place that we both liked and made a quick bee line to the place. Feeling a hand on my waist when I got on line, I jumped only to see Dean standing behind wrapping his arms around me. I releaxed quickly, taking in his scent and feeling hte comfort of being in his arms.

I pulled him down for a kiss and smiled happily when our lips finally met. Wrapping my arms around his neck, we stood there enjoying each other's embrace before we pulled back. I curled his hair around my finger and gave him a full kiss before turning my attention back to the line. He hugged me from behind and we stayed like that until it was time for us to order our food. Waiting for our order, I turned to face Dean and rested my hands on his sides.

"Are we okay?" He asked me. "I really am sorry."

"I know you are." I told him. "We're good. Like I said though, just try to be a bit more understanding next time. I know if I acted the same way, you wouldn't have liked it too much either."

Dean nodded and kisses my forehead just in time for our food to come a few minutes later. Grabbing my hand, we made our way out the mall after getting ourselves together and walked home. Luckily our apartment wasn't too far from the mall so it wasn't that long of a walk that had to be done.

_**Later that night...**_

Dean and I laid in bed after some making up. His phone vibrated indicating a new message, causing him to let out a groan. He reached over to pick it up and saw that it was from Derek.

"He said that his dad and Vanessa are talking again." Dean said.

I rolled my eyes. "Does he really have to tell us now when it's almost one in the morning?"

"They were probably having sex like we were." He whispered huskily in my ear when he rolled me over on my back and gave me a few kisses on my neck.

Blushing, I bit my lip and snuggled up to me when he laid on his back again and rested my head on his chest. "Yes, but we were making up and we're boyfriend and girlfriend. Vanessa's doing it because she's a hoe and she don't have nothing better to do to. The guy she's fucking just screwing just happens to be a damn perv. That's on her, not me. We just happened to get screwed over in the process."

"I'm gonna see if there's anything that he could get to tell us before he forgets." He tells me as his fingers start to type a message to send back to Derek. Looking up at him, I knew that he didn't trust my step-brother. Seeing when Dean furrowed his eyebrows, I poked my head up and tried to see what was going on.

"Derek's saying that it's better to meet in person so that he can tell us what's going on at his end." Dean told me. "Why can't he just text it to me or at least you since he has a better relationship with you than he does me?"

I took his phone and looked at the text messages in disbelief. My jaw tightened. "What is me texting him going to do?" I asked, remembering exactly how Derek was. "There's no way that he'll text back. I'm sure of that."

"Why wouldn't he?" Dean asked as he looked at me and took his phone back when I gave it to him.

"He may want something." I simply replied. "I know him a lot better than he thinks I do."

Dean texted Derek to meet us tomorrow for lunch at a diner that we both love going to every now and then, when we have enough money to go. Now I see clearly why Dean hesitates to be around him as much, even though Derek really can be a nice guy. But he's also extremely smart and knows how to do things that people wouldn't think that he knows much about.

_**The next day...**_

Dean and I get to the diner, hand in hand and we see that Derek's car is already there. When he sees us, he gets out of his car and locks it before meeting us halfway. Him and I greeted each other while Dean hesitated but eventually greeted him as well.

I walked behind Dean as we went in and was taken to a booth by the waitress. I kept looking over at Derek, only to see him attached to his phone. Even when we had situated ourselves and were ready to order, we barely put any attention to us.

"What's so important on that phone of yours?" I asked. "I thought you were here to talk to us, not your cyber buddies."

Derek looked up at me and saw the blank expression on my face before he cleared his throat and put his phone down after seeing the look that Dean gave him, daring him to say something smart. After the waitress came and went, he turned his attention back to us and left his phone alone.

_**O.O**_

"Vanessa wants to try to get Dean alone." Derek said to us. "It's a way, she believes, in where she could get him to do or say something bad to her against Leah so that it can be used against you, Dean. John believes that there's a chance somewhere in there that would have her running to Vanessa to then run to my dad. From there, my dad will do whatever it is that he wants to do to her, but gradually. He knows that she'll run from him if he's straightforward with what he wants from her which is sex, obviously."

The fact that he said it so calmly just freaked me out. Not on a Leah level, because when she did it, it was just scary because if you knew her well enough then you'd know that her anger was about to get her ready for takeoff.

"You couldn't text me that last night?" I asked him. "You could have texted Leah if you weren't comfortable with saying it to me. Then again, you were the one to text me, so yeah."

"I just wanted to talk to Leah." He replied. "If you didn't want to come, you didn't have to."

I nodded as I blinked a few times. I chuckled as I looked at Leah who was crossed her legs to keep from moving them around so much. "You got a mouth on you today, don't you Derek? Trying to earn a pair of balls all of a sudden?"

"Funny, because you could have texted me if it was me that you wanted to see and the one that you wanted to talk to." Leah said to Derek. "Don't get smart, Derek. You know I can do a much better job at that if I wanted to. Now let's all just calm down and do what we came here for which is to talk."

We stayed quiet as our food was bought. The waitress left after giving us a soft smile. Things got awkward with Derek for a moment there, but it was fine.

"If Vanessa has said anything bad about Leah, then why doesn't she go to her and say those things to Leah?" I asked Derek. "She's woman enough to lay with your dad so why isn't woman enough to confront the one person that she's doing wrong?"

"She obviously doesn't think that there's anything wrong with what she's doing." He replied, facing me. "And if Vanessa does, then she doesn't care. What am I supposed to do? They don't know that I'm here telling you these things. Taken aback by me not being intimidated by you, Dean?"

I looked at him and smiled before chuckling. Looking over at Leah, I let her know that I'll handle it. "Let me tell you something, Derek. Whether you're intimidated by me or not, I could care less. You have the balls to stand up to me and I commend that. I genuinely do because not a lot of people do what you're doing at this very moment. Although, just because you grew a pair doesn't mean you can cross me because I can assure you that I have a bigger pair."

"I'm not scared of you, Dean." He told me confidently. "You can't scare me, no matter your threats."

"And that's all well and dandy, Derek." I responded as calmly as I could. "There's no problem with that. Really, there isn't. I'm not scared of you either so now that we have that out of the way, we can probably move on. Just because your Leah's step-brother doesn't mean that I won't stand up for myself against you. I'm trying to be nice to you and I'm trying to work with you here, but don't double cross me just like I won't you. And as for threats...dear ol' Derek. You'll be able to know when I'm giving you a threat. Our conversation today between you and I has been filled with none on my end so don't get it confused with threats when it comes to me."

"You don't seem like the kind of guy to stay this calm." Derek said. "You're Leah's bitch now?"

I smiled. "I'm nobody's bitch so let's not get it twisted. But she's my girlfriend and I will respect her by not jumping over this table and beating the shit out of you."

"Are you big boys done now?" Asked Leah as she sat watching the whole thing. "Or are we going to continue to get away from what we're really here for?"

I looked at her before looking back at Derek and shrugged. "Apologies on my end. Let's move on, shall we?"

"One more thing before we do, though." She said. "The two of you _will _get along with each other. Is that understood?"

Derek and I shared an intense glare between each other before finally moving on. Let him try something with Leah and I won't be this calm.

**A/N: So what do you think about Derek? Is he really wanting to help them out or does he want something and if he didn't want to talk to Dean, then why wouldn't he just text Leah to talk to her and her alone? And that 'conversation' between Dean and Derek during lunch? **


	17. Chapter 17

**Thank you to jessica619, Alexandria M, justkimmy, and DeeMarie426 for reviewing :) **

**A/N: This chapter will involve John's pov. **

***Contains sexual content/language* **

"What are you doing tonight?" Asked Vanessa when she walked up to me. I looked at her curiously and blinked a few times. We were at the library and Leah was looking for some books. I had lost her in one of the aisle's so I waited for her where she would be able to find me.

"It's none of your business because it won't be with you." I responded. In truth, I was going to take Leah out on a date tonight. Just the two of us, with no interruptions and nobody to make it into a group type of thing. Nobody knew where I was going to take her, let alone that I was going to take her out. Roman was the only person who knew where we were going to be. I wanted to keep it a surprise for Leah. Vanessa was the last person I wanted to have knowledge of anything that Leah and I were going to be doing.

She sighed and continued standing in front of me, even as Roman came to stand next to me. Vanessa twirled her hair around her finger and it reminded me of how Leah would sometimes do the same thing with her hair and when she would play with mine. I stared into space and smiled, thinking about my girlfriend until I saw Roman's hand waving in front of my face and bringing me back to reality.

"Sorry, I was thinking about Leah." I said quietly after clearing my throat.

"I know." Roman replied with a knowing look.

Vanessa looked back and forth between the two of us. "How do you know who Dean's thinking about?"

Roman looked at her. "He's my best friend. I know at least half of the things that he thinks about. And besides, Leah's the only person who is able to give him that smile without her having to be around. You should know that about Dean though. I mean, you've known him for a few years already, haven't you?"

I elbowed him lightly. "She became anti-Dean though when Leah and I started dating. That's why she doesn't know."

Vanessa gave me a look. "I can fix that though. Maybe with some alone time between you and I."

"I don't think so." I told her, feeling a bit uncomfortable all of a sudden. I suddenly remembered what Derek told me last week about Vanessa trying to get me alone to say or do something against Leah to use against me. We haven't heard from him since and I liked it that way. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go meet up with Leah."

"Why don't you want to spend some time with me?" She asked innocently.

I looked over at my best friend who was in just as much aww as I was at what was going on in front of us. "Are you okay, Vanessa?"

She blinked a few times before looking around. "Why do you always want to be with Leah? Don't you get tired of being with the same person all the time?"

"No I don't. If I did, I would've prefered to be a loner a long time ago." I told her. "I could ask you the same thing though with that John guy."

"John's just a friend." Vanessa told me.

"That you just happen to be fucking." I replied quickly, under my breath. Seeing Leah, I smiled and walked over to her. Giving her a full kiss, my long fingers reached the nape of her neck as my thumb stroked her cheek. Pulling away, Leah gave me a smile as she looked up at me with soft blue eyes.

"I like when you look at me like that." Leah said softly.

"Like what?" I asked.

Looking up at me again, she smiled. "Like I'm the most important person to you...like I'm your everything."

"You are." I said quietly as I nudged her nose with mine before giving her another full kiss. "Ready for our date tonight?"

She nodded with another smile. "I still don't know where we're going."

"You'll see when we get there." I told her.

I chuckled softly when she pouted, making me wrap her up in my arms. Her hair was in a ponytail and she smelled like strawberries. Her pink shirt went well with her skin tone and made her blue eyes look lighter and softer. I wanted to make love to her right here and now but I thought it'd be best to wait. There was a sparkle in her eyes today that that made her glow. It was a sparkle that I've seen before and I wasn't going to ignore it today.

Grabbing her hand, we walked around a little longer before leaving with Roman. I whispered a few sweet words in her ear while her and I sat in the back seat. Roman was going to pick up his girlfriend before going to get some pizza. Leah leaned her head against my shoulder and opened up one of the books that she got and began to read it. I softly stroked her back as I watched her read and rested my cheek against the top of her head when she cuddled up against me.

_**...**_

We got out of the car and watched as our girlfriends interacted with each other as they were becoming more and more like best friends as time went on. I loved seeing the smile on Leah's face when she was happy. The excitement in her eyes when she's talking about something that she likes. The way that Leah is able to make me the happiest that I've ever been in my life without having to try. My world revolved around her and I wouldn't trade it for the world, the life that I have with her. I may be wrapped around her finger, but that's absolutely fine with me. I may be a teddy bear to her, but that's fine with me. For Leah, I will.

"Dean." Leah said, getting my attention when we walked into the pizza shop. I let her grab my arm and hold on to it as we ordered. I gave her small kisses while we waited and I heard Roman groan as we did. I gave him the finger and heard him chuckle. Hearing her whimper quietly when she got a chill, I let her snuggle into my side and get felt her relax.

_**O.O **_

Dean was being the sweetest that he's ever been and I couldn't help but feel so happy. He was tending to my every want and need without me asking him for anything. I'm so in love with this guy.

My phone vibrated a few minutes later and I saw that it was a message from Derek. I hadn't spoken to him since last week. The last time I saw and spoke to him was the day that he met up with us for lunch. Him and Dean had gotten into a war of words so to say and it got intense.

"Derek wants to meet me." I whispered to Dean after a break in the conversation as we all ate our pizza. Showing him my phone, I felt him tense up.

"Are you going to?" He asked.

I thought for a moment. "No. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to go by myself. I don't like how he talked to you that day."

"Baby, it's fine." He told me, reassuringly. "I'm just not comfortable around him. For some reason, every time he's around you and I get into a fight or a disagreement. I don't trust him, Leah."

Thinking for a moment, I understood what he was trying to say. Sitting up, I kissed his cheek and leaned into him when he wrapped his arm around me. "If you're going to go see him, at least let me go with you. I'll feel more sane knowing for myself that you're okay. And if he's not scared and intimidated by me, then he won't have a problem with me being there."

"Just don't fight, okay?" I asked him as I kissed his jaw.

"I won't." He replied quietly. "Just as long as he doesn't try anything with you."

I smiled and nodded. Sharing a quick kiss, we shared another smile before finishing up our pizza.

_**That night...**_

I finished getting dressed in a blue shirt that was loose but small enough to still fit me. Dark blue jeans and boots because it was raining a bit out side. I had straightened out my hair and left it out, making a note to keep it from getting wet when we got outside. I put on a lipgloss that left my lips shiny and a soft shade of pink.

When I looked back, I saw Dean buttoning up his grey shirt after putting on his jeans and a pair of his favorite sneakers. His hair was still a bit wet from his shower and he smelled crisp and clean, even after putting on some cologne. I smiled and walked up to him, helping him finish up his shirt. Fitting perfectly in his arms, I curled his hair around my finger when I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Dean smiled happily and kissed my neck. "I love you."

"I love you, too." I responded in his ear. I didn't want to leave his arms but I knew that if we were to leave this apartment to go on our date, it's what I had to do. We grabbed our things and put on our coats and walked out after grabbing an umbrella.

"Are you still not going to tell me where we're going?" I asked sweetly after a few minutes of walking.

He smiled. "No, I'm not. You'll like it though, I promise."

I pouted in an effort to get him to change his mind. Dean grinned when he saw the best pout that I could give him but still wouldn't tell me. When we got to the restaurant, I recognized it as a chinese restaurant that we tried a few months ago with Roman, his cousins and Trinity and fell in love with. We haven't gone since that one time, but it's a place that I've always wanted to try again because the food was just so amazing.

Going inside, I followed Dean as he followed the waiter to the back. It was more private and secluded. The waiter sat us down and asked for what we wanted to drink. When he came back with our sodas, Dean and I went to the buffet part and took what we wanted to eat. When we got back to our table, I pulled Dean to me and gave him a kiss. I felt his lips move against mine without hesitation and nipped his bottom lip.

"You're not going to sleep tonight, you know that?" He whispered in my ear.

I felt my face grow warm as I ate some of my rice. "Why is that?"

"Because I'm going to make love to you." Dean simply replied.

I grinned and gave him another kiss. I couldn't get enough of Dean and his dimples. He was so cute and I my heart swelled with so much love for this guy.

"Tell me...what's your biggest fear?" I asked him when we settled back down.

Dean thought for a moment as he ate his food. "Not being good enough for someone. I would say being by myself, but I'm so used to it that I wonder sometimes if it'll scare me. What's yours?"

"Ending up alone." I replied. "I mean, I'm used to being alone, but now that I have you and we're together a lot, it's wierd when you're not there by my side."

"So you like it when we're together?" He asked.

I nodded as I took a sip of my soda. "I don't know if it's because we've been kinda inseperable since the day that we first sneaked into the school to sleep in the locker room or what, but I like it."

"I bought you here tonight because I wanted it to be just the two of us tonight." Dean said to me. "No interruptions, no fighting. Just you and I spending some time together without having to worry or thinking about things that've happened in the last few weeks with everything."

We shared a smile and a few kisses before going back to our food.

_**O.O**_

"Have you gotten anything that we could use against Dean?" I asked Vanessa as I watched her get dressed. We just finished another round of sex and I was really beginning to enjoy the sex we had with each other more than I thought I was going to.

"Nope." She sadly sighed. "Dean won't budge and believe me, I'm thinking of ways to get it done."

I thought for a moment as I got out of bed and walked over to her. "Why not offer him sex?"

Vanessa looked up at me as if I was crazy. "I'm not going to be having sex with all of these guys just to get what I want."

"But you're having sex with _me_." I told her.

"Because I want to." She replied. "What other guy around here, my age, is going to make me feel the way you do when we fuck?"

I smirked at the comment and felt myself beginning to get hard again at the thought of being in her tight little body.

"It may seem like it'll be long before we get Leah and Dean in our grasp." I told Vanessa. "But we'll get them right where we want them to be. It'll work."

"What if it doesn't?" She asked.

I shook my head. "I won't take no for an answer until I get Leah. If you want Dean, then you shouldn't either. But if this doesn't work, then we'll need to think of something else to get them apart."

A few minutes passed before she faced me again. "Do you need help with that?"

I followed Vanessa's gaze to see what she was talking about. She grabbed my member and began to stroke it, making it harder and making it grow in length. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she licked the underside of my member from base to tip before taking me into her warm and moist mouth.

Vanessa slowly bobbed her head as continued to stuff her mouth with my cock, every time that she bobbed her head back down. I dug both of my hands into her hair and groaned in pleasure feeling the vibrations of her moans ripple throughout my cock. Her tongue did wonders as it moved against my erection with every suck that she took. I stayed quiet for a bit to hear every sucking and slurping noise that was made. Her hand began moving against my member, giving me more pleasure as she deep throated me.

"That's it, Darlin'." I told her huskily. "Just like that."

She kept at it, not slowing down for anything. My erection began to throb and get a bit bigger and I knew that I was about to cum. I tried to hold it back for as long as I could and it worked until I couldn't any longer. I thrusted my cock into her mouth until I knew that I hit the back of her throat and released my load into her as I held on to the back of her head to feel her swallow. Sliding out of her mouth, I saw wipe her lips as she stood up.

"One more fuck?" I asked, stroking my cock to get it hardened again.

She smirked. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I asked, slightly dissapointed.

Vanessa nodded. "Gives you something to look forward to tomorrow, doesn't it? Maybe you can have some fun jerking off to me."

I looked down to see myself fully stroking my erection as I squeezed it a bit, remembering how tight her hole is and got her point.

"Be ready for tomorrow, then." I smirked at her.

**A/N: What else could John and Vanessa have mind if their current plans don't work? How far are they willing to go to get the two people that they want the most? Do you think they're using sex to keep each other interested in working together to get what they want? And what do you think of Dean being as sweet as he was being to Leah all day and then taking her out on a date, just the two of them? Did you ever think Dean would ever turn into a teddy bear for anyone? **


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you to Alexandria M, jessica619, corbettluv, DeeMarie426, 'Guest' and justkimmy for reviewing :) **

**A/N: Vanessa's pov will be added to this chapter. **

"Dean..." Leah giggled as she playfully hit my arm as I placed small kisses on her neck and attempted to tickle her. She was in nothing but one of my shirts and her underwear and I couldn't keep my hands off of her everytime she was. Making love to her all night still hasn't calmed my need for her.

It was now April and spring break was coming up in a few days. Even though Leah and I wouldn't be able to go anywhere, we were going to take that time work on us and make sure that our relationship was as strong as could be by the time everybody saw us again after vacation was over. A part of me was going to make sure that I made love to her every night as well.

"We have to get to school." Leah said as she started to play with my hair. "Just a few more days and we won't have to worry about having to wake up so early."

I nuzzled her neck and kissed it once more. "But I want you."

Leah smiled up at me. "We're going to be late, baby."

I gave her the best pout that I could, making her grin and give me a kiss when she grabbed my face with her hands.

"You're so cute." She said against my lips. We layed there for a few minutes, with our lips against each others until we pulled away from each other for air. Leah bit her lip and thought about something for a moment before sighing softly. "We're going to be early for school tomorrow. No excuses. School is important too, mister."

I smiled knowing what she meant and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

_**O.O **_

By the time we had finished, it was too late for Leah to get to class and so she decided to go straight to work from home. I walked her to the mall on my way to school, I knew it wouldn't happen again in the mornings for a while, so I was trying to enjoy the fact that she let it slide this one time, knowing that she wouldn't say anything bad about it. After dropping her off, I decided to ditch school for the rest of the day and so I walked around before eventually getting some lunch.

When I sat down at the food court to eat, I saw Vanessa and immediately knew that she had seen me. I cringed, not wanting her to come anywhere near me, but one can only hope. She came over and sat down in front of me just as I was about to begin eating.

"Why are you cutting school?" Vanessa asked.

I looked at her as I took a bite of my chicken and waited until I finished that bite to respond. "Why is it a concern to anybody?"

She shrugged. "I just know how Leah is with her wanting you to always be in school and whatnot. Does she know that you didn't go to school today?"

"Leah knows that I didn't go today." I responded. "That's why I'm here. If she didn't know, I wouldn't have been here at this very moment."

"She has you whipped." Vanessa said.

I smiled and chuckled. "It's not called being whipped, Vanessa. It's called Leah being a good influence on me and encouraging me to do the right thing. You'll learn that when you get into a relationship."

"I could learn that now, with you." She told me in a sultry voice. "Maybe at my place...tonight."

I pulled my hand back when she began to touch it and began to get my things. I knew that people around here that knew me, knew that I had a girlfriend. I didn't want it getting around that Vanessa was hanging around and that they saw her being all touchy feely with me. Leah wasn't going to be all too happy with that, it was a fact.

"Wait, where are you going Dean?" Asked Vanessa.

"I'm going to find somewhere else to eat." I responded. "I'm not doing this bullshit that you're trying to pull. We've known each other since we were in middle school and we were always really good friends. Even when Leah came around, we still had a good bond with each other. Then you turn on me only to act like this months after you do?"

Vanessa looked at me and blinked a few times. "I didn't realize that I liked you until you and Leah started dating."

"That doesn't give you a reason for you to do what you've done." I told her. "You turned your back on her all because she's with me. You never minded the fact that I used to cut as much as I did and that I didn't always get the best grades, Vanessa. You never used to mind that I fought quite a bit and that I hung around people that some would think was the wrong crowd because they're aren't as good of an influence on me as Leah is, yet she becomes my girlfriend and you're so 'oh my God, you can do better, Leah.' I understand feeling upset because somebody that you like is with someone else. But to do the things that you've done or worse because of it?"

"I just really like you and I think we should give us a try." Vanessa told me.

I looked around and sighed. "We can't give us a try, Vanessa and that's the thing. I'm in love with Leah and I'm not going to leave her to be with someone else. It's her that I want and I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to break her heart and I'm going to keep my word. Leah is my life and she's the most important person to me in this world. I'll be damned if I allow you to mess that all up for me all because of feelings. I respect your feelings and I understand, but the answer's 'no'. I'm sorry."

Walking away before she said anything, I looke for another table to sit at and continued to eat my lunch. I wasn't going to let Vanessa get to me. Not when I have something good going for me.

_**O.O**_

After work, Dean and I made our way home with a few things from the supermarket for dinner. We were going to make one of our favorite dishes tonight and I just wanted to get home. I couldn't wait for spring break to come so that I could get some rest and catch up on some much needed sleep.

"I wanna cuddle." I whimpered softly as I pouted and held on to Dean's arm right as we got saw the apartment complex in the distance. "I have a headache."

Dean kisses my head and keeps my arm hooked in through his. "When we get home, I'm all yours. Better yet, when we get home, I'll make dinner. You just go take a hot shower and if you need to do anything for school, you can do that. I'll take care of everything else."

"You don't need to do that." I said with a smile and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll help you out. I don't have any homework anyways."

"It's okay, baby." Dean said softly as he looked over at me. "Let me do something for you. You never ask me for help and I want to."

I stopped walking and smiled up at him. Tip-toeing slightly, I kissed him softly and felt his lips move against mine as he placed his hand on my waist. "I love you."

He smiled that smile of his that showed his dimples. "I love you."

_**...**_

"You okay?" I asked Dean as we sat eating dinner. It was alfredo with rice and beans and something that we both loved. He was more quite than usual and he had something on his mind.

"I saw Vanessa today." He said quietly after sighing. Dean played with food for a few seconds before taking a bite. "She said that she didn't realize that she liked me until you and I started dating."

Blinking a few times, I looked at him and furrowed my eyebrows. "Why didn't Vanessa ever tell me anything, regardless of what the reason was? We could have talked it out instead of losing a friendship over who I'm dating."

Dean shrugged. "She didn't say much on the whole matter. I was just wanting to get away from her because I didn't want to hear it. The more she talked, it was as if she wanted me to ruin us so that I could be with her and that's a risk that I'm not willing to take for anybody."

I looked down sadly and frowned as I played with my food. I heard Dean move his chair right next to me and saw him place his arms around me as he rested his chin on my shoulder.

"Meaning that I'm not going to leave you." He whispered. "I love you too much to even think about it. You're my baby and I can't stand being without you, Leah. You've made me open up with you when it's something that I've never with anybody else in my life. You're the best thing that's happened to me and I'm not letting you go. Please know that and please know that I mean every word of it. I'm not letting you go."

I nudged my nose with his and smiled slowly. "Yeah?"

Dean smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I love you, Leah."

"I love you, too." I replied and shared a kiss with him. I don't know what I did to get so lucky with love, but I did. I was enjoying every minute of being in love and I didn't want it to stop. Dean was the guy of my dreams and he made me so happy. "Don't let me go."

"I won't." He whispered and gave me another kiss.

_**O.O**_

"Dean won't budge." I told John as I walked back and forth in his room. "No matter how much I told him that I like him, he won't budge. Leah has him wrapped around her finger and Dean's completely hooked on her."

"Let's not forget that we have to work on Leah as well." He said to me. "It can't just be us working on Dean every single time. Creating a wedge between them will work better if we try on both of them."

I sat down next to him. "How are we going to do that though? Leah wants nothing to do with me anymore and she despises you."

"But she trusts Derek." John said. I looked over at him in curiousity. "They were always close and always treated each other like they were always brother and sister. We just have to get him to our side."

"And if he doesn't?" I asked.

John thought for a moment. "He will. We'll make sure of it. There's no way that he'll deny us after the plan that I have in mind. It may end up benefiting him as well."

**A/N: I know this chapter is a bit short, but I wanted to show in a way that the bond between Leah and Dean may be stronger than Vanessa may think that it is. Are you surprised with the reason that Vanessa gave for why she did what she has done towards Leah and Dean since they started dating? Do you believe the reason that she gave or do you think it's just a fluke to get him to do something **


End file.
